On April 20, Lick-Wilmerding celebrated thirty years of its annual One Acts festival. The 2018 festival included eight plays and five interludes, all student directed, written, and acted. This year, students involved in the Festival included 17 writers, 15 directors, and 71 actors. The show featured its typical variety of shows, ranging from ridiculous, laugh out loud comedies to heartbreaking dramas that explored complex topics such as mental illness and domestic violence.
Cabin Fever written by Mud Bentley ’20 and directed by Luke Rajkovic ’18, follows the story of two teenage siblings, Sarah and George (Phoebe Klebahn ’20 and Kieran Yater ’18) who are stranded in a cabin during a snowstorm. The siblings’ bickering comes to a head when George eats the last bit of food they have left –– a Nature Valley Oats and Honey bar. Fortunately, the two are saved when the cabin owner (Chloe Saraceni ’18) finds them when they are literally at each other’s throats.
First Date written by Macy Amos ’18, Alana Baer ’18 and Mar Cornelius ’18, and directed by Charley Ostrow ’18, one of the funniest shows of the night, tells the story of an awkward first date between Tommy (James Crutcher ’18) and Cindy (Erica Thompson ‘18) at a movie theatre. The date becomes increasingly disastrous as the movie’s lively patrons, including Tommy’s mom (Sarah Dean ’18), a passionate fanboy (Yoshi Nakada ‘19), and an obnoxious woman talking on her cell phone (Franny Jacobson ’18), continually interrupt their date. The non-chaotic moments of the play come during the showings of ridiculous movie trailers, which are described by the trailer’s narrator (Bridge Robinson ‘19). Other actors featured in First Date include Lillie Aivars ’19, Luca Cavan ‘18, Harrison Gable ’18, Koji Taylor ‘19, Griffn Tsang ’19, and Ryan Yee ’18.
Orientation Day written by Charlotte Lokey ’20 and directed by Alex Southwick ’18, saw Ruth (Melody Sifry ’20) receive an orientation to her new life in Hell. Ruth is assigned to be the personal assistant of the bubbly Satan (Sophie Hochman ’18). Unwilling to accept her life in Hell under Satan’s rule, Ruth requires the help of Satan’s loyal henchmen, (Sam Ludeke ’20 and Brandon Moore ’20) to kill Satan during a “Welcome to Hell” party. After attempting to use Satan’s peanut allergy against her, one of Satan’s henchmen reveals himself to be God, Satan’s brother. In the end, Ruth and Satan, over a glass of wine, settle their differences by bonding over their dislike for God.
Catfish written by Claire Moreman ’19 and directed by Lois Shaw ’18, tells the story of two women living in the Victorian era, Emma and Agatha (Viva Donohoe ’20 and Jeannie Moreno ’20). When Emma begins to receive letters from the mysterious and wealthy Finley (Eddie Dilworth ‘19), she continues a correspondence with him and eventually agrees to marry him, despite Agatha and her husband’s (Nathan Gilbert ’21) disapproval. When Emma and Finley finally meet in person in the show’s climax, the two both realize that they have been lying about themselves in their letters to each other, including about their names. Finley reveals his real last name is “Catfish.” First time playwright for the festival, Moreman, described her inspiration for the piece; “I was inspired to write the play after watching a couple of episodes over winter break of the television show Catfish. The term catfish refers to when you lie online on a dating profile, so I decided to take that concept and set it in Victorian times.”
Dollhouse written by Sutter Morris ’18 and directed by Riley Soto ’18, and assistant directed by Mari Kure ’19, carefully explored the issue of domestic violence through the juxtaposition of a young girl, Lucy (Danika Claiborne ’19), playing with the family of dolls who live in her dollhouse and her real life family. The show delves into how domestic violence impacts a child’s life, as Lucy’s play with her doll family reflects the abuse in her real life family. Assistant director Kure explained that the hardest part of directing a serious drama was “getting our actors to maintain a straight face. Sometimes when people are uncomfortable, they laugh, which obviously isn’t what we wanted them to do for the scene. As we kept practicing, they got more used to it and were able to run through the scene without cracking a smile.” Actors featured in the show include Aidan Alberts ’18, Abigail Amlesom ’19, Liam Coen ’18, Josh Goettner ’18, and Sadie Ray Smith ’19.
Dance, Dance: The Revolution written by Brandon Moore ’20 and directed by Jey Kissel ’18 and Evan Fuller ’18, followed a young girl named Alice (Ellie Smith ’18) living under an oppressive futuristic government which forces her to create power by dancing on dance pads. Fighting this oppressive government is a group of dancing rebels (Royce Fong ‘18, Noah Wong ’18, and Miles Buhrmann ’20) who work with Alice to save the day. When the three men’s dancing fails, it is Alice whose dancing frees them. is production was senior Fong’s first time participating in the One Acts Festival. Fong described the experience working with his peers across all grade levels as “a great dynamic to be a part of a lot of fun for my first acting experience.” Other stars of the hilarious and over-dramatic one act include Alex Martinez ’18 as the tyrant, and Felix Quintero ’19.
Apartment 228, written by Julia Hatfield ’18 and directed by Alex Yeh ‘18, tells the story of Jane Wicks (Leah Atkins ’20), an ordinary girl with extraordinary telekinetic powers. Her special powers make her the enemy of the leader of the authoritarian government of the this dystopian society, Dame Franken (Ellie Murphy-Weise ’19), as well as of the Blue and Red Rebels (Emma Dean’ 21, Julianne Kelleher ’20, Emilia Fernandez ’18, and Eli Simon ’19,). After a run-in with the Dame Franken and Blue and Red Rebels, Jane’s perspective on herself and the society around her changes. Playwright Hatfield spoke of the writing process to develop Apartment 228; “Where were some really stressful times throughout the process. We went through about ten drafts, but my director was always willing to accept my input on my play.” Others featured in this futuristic action play include Olympia Francis Taylor ’18 and Kyra Wang ’18.
A Dream, written by Toby Taylor-Cohen ’20 and directed by Penny Devlin ’18, shows a teenage Oliver (Michael DeLaurier ’21) struggle with the strong pushback from his mother (Eloise Schrier ’18) regarding his dream to become a professional composer and play classical piano. Oliver’s world is turned upside down when he nds out that his mom has been withholding and hiding his medication from him for two years. In fact, he is not a great musician, but has schizophrenic delusions. Although a heart wrenching piece dealing with the theme of mental illness, the play ends on a happier note after a loving moment between Oliver and his sister (Anna Hochman ’21).
Who Killed Jack Milbourn? written by Gabrielle Begun ’21 and directed by Ella Gillmor ’18 tells the story of when the aristocratic host of a house party is found dead, bumbling detective (Jackson Pen eld’ 20), the deceased’s unfaithful wife (Gigi Buckner ’19), a gold digging professor (Cory Beizer ’19), a Russian (David Cook ’18), a French woman (Silvana Montagu ’18), a young journalist (Susan Cook ’20), a flamboyant butler (Calum MacDermid ’20), and a quiet cook (Maggie Drew ’18) must solve the mystery of Jack Milbourn’s (Ben Slaughter ’21) murder. In an outrageous, shocking, and hilarious 20 minute comedy, audiences themselves found themselves wondering, “who killed Jack Milbourn?” An homage to last year’s musical comedy “Consider This!,” the show featured a show stopping confession told through a song and dance when the housewife is questioned about the murder of her husband. Who Killed Jack Millborn? was director Ella Gillmor’s second time directing for the festival, but her first time directing a musical, “I thought that directing for the second time would be a similar experience, as both plays I directed had similar “slapstick” humor, but adding a musical number added a completely different element. It was super cool to have both people with musical experience and people with no musical experience, including myself, work together and challenge themselves creatively.”
The festival, of course, had its usual interludes, sly skits in between the main acts. The interludes were directed by juniors in this year’s Directing class — Saskia Fisher ’19, David Gales ’19, Liv Jacob ’19, Julia Moser ’19, and Koji Taylor ’19.
The first interlude of the night was Bad Habits, written and directed by Liv Jacob. Bad Habits saw two enthusiastic nuns (Sara Kashani ’19 and Andrew Boghossian ’18) who are fangirling over their “heavenly daddy,” the Pope (Kai Lord ’19). Ode to Mr. T written by Harry Bernholz ’19 and directed by Julia Moser introduced shy singer-songwriter Kelly (Audrey Hirshman ’20) as she expressed her love to the unidentifiable “Mr. T” in a song. As the song progresses Kelly’s dream man is ultimately revealed to be Frosted Flakes mascot, Tony the Tiger.
In the second act the interlude Whole Feuds, written and directed by Koji Taylor, was an odyssey of old friends turned new enemies, featuring classic wrestling antics such as ridiculous costumes. The charismatic Mike assumes the wrestling alias Gregory Guido (Greg Saccone ’19) and challenges audience member and equally charismatic foe Doug (Zach Johnson ’19) to the showdown of a lifetime, organized by their mutual friend, Joe (Joe Woldemichael ’19). An Arm and a Leg, written and directed by David Gales, found two siblings debating how to deal with the box of limbs found in their mom’s freezer. e interlude had a twist ending when the siblings find that the arm has their father’s watch attached to it. The stars of this interlude were Kiki Arenas ’19 and Issac Sanchez ’19. Bay Area, written by Kailee Shlipak ’19 and Zelda Perkins ‘19 and directed by Saskia Fisher, broadcasts stereotypes of different Bay Area high schools in a reality television show setting. The host (Matthew Kamimoto ’18) asks the students about stereotypes of their respective schools. Once the cameras are off, the audience realizes the students are nothing like the stereotypes they were portraying in the television show. The piece features Maggie O’Connell ’21, Will Roos ’19, Emily Friedman ’19, and Asher Lord ’21.
