By MITCHELL PEARL
This past weekend saw the annual presentation of short plays (also known as “The One-Acts”) to appreciative audiences at Otter Valley. The evening started with 5 student-written and -directed plays. The only play presented that was not written by a student was the last play, which is the festival piece to be presented at Vermont’s Regional Drama Festival.
The festival piece this year is “Queens,” by acclaimed playwright Kristen Doherty, and directed at Otter Valley by theatre director Jeffrey Hull. Like the Broadway musical “Six,” this play presents a fictionalized approach to the story of the six wives of Henry VIII, but from the wives’ point of view. In “Queens,” King Henry VIII is trapped in purgatory, bound to his throne, and forced to relive the sins he committed against his queens.
The script of “Queens” follows the historical record closely and calls for strong acting. The six queens rose to the challenge, dramatizing their respective fates: “divorced,” “died in childbirth,” “beheaded,” or—in the case of Henry’s last Queen—nearly beheaded, but “survived.” The six queens are played by Jordan Bertrand, Sophie Moore, Elyse Singh, Dani Polli, Kaylee Maloy, and Alyssa Raymond. Each of their dramatic scenes was superb, and their period costumes were fantastic. As Katherine Parr (Alyssa Raymond)—the one who survived—remarked, “you’ll say anything to keep your head.”
In “Queens,” Henry VIII also has an important role, played in purgatory by Brendan McLaughlin and in the dream sequences by Calvin Ladd. Given the history, Henry is not presented as a particularly likeable fellow, but both student actors tackled the difficult complexities of Henry’s character straight on. There were also three “Fools,” played by Emil Dardozzi, Oliver Lavelle, and Raul Soto, who move the action along by taking on multiple roles, serving as narrators, and interacting with the ladies-in-waiting as a coherent ensemble.
The student-written and -directed plays opened the evening. The first play was “Mildly Brunette,” written and directed by Jordan Bertrand and Kaylee Maloy. It is a parody of “Legally Blonde”—the musical had been presented by Otter Valley’s Walking Stick Theatre some years ago. Kristie Posner, playing the character “Beige,” who is brunette but wants to be blonde, eventually realizes that it is just fine to just be who she really is. She played the part with a graceful ease. “Mildly Brunette” also contained original music and dance sequences. Next up was “Unlucky Break,” written and directed by Emil Dardozzi and Oliver Lavelle, which follows the antics of three “unlucky” prisoners (Jack Rawls, Brayden McPherson, and Xander Weiand) trying to break out of jail. As the play unfolds, the prisoners learn to cope with their situation as they instruct each other, the guards, and even the warden on how to better accept and appreciate their fates in life. The next play, “Backstage Magic: The Tech Crew Chronicles” is a backstage comedy written and directed by Andrew Easter. The play follows the difficult times going on backstage while, as the actors onstage report, “the audience had no idea that anything was going wrong.”
Next up was “Hellen Keller & the Infinity Series,” an “incorrect” and ambitious retelling of the Helen Keller story, written and directed by Calvin Ladd, Brendan McLoughlin, and Ian Miner. When Hellen Keller is born, she is struck by a ray from outer space and becomes a superhero. She and a band of other superheroes battle to overcome their challenges while characters such as Stevie Wonder, Vincent Van Gogh, and FDR play important roles. Everything turns out okay in the end when Hellen Keller (played by Ryder Snow) meets “Good Helen” (Kalina Snow) and recognizes that she is just fine as she is. The last student play of the evening was “The Real Lives of Maple Leaf Theatre” a reality TV show take on high-school theatre. It is a funny, dramatic comedy written and directed by Sophie Moore and Elyse Singh in which a group of students audition for and work on a production of “West Side Story.” We learn that in high school theatre, “everyone dates everyone else,” while Roman (played by Brayden McPherson) plays off two of the other actors. Jack Rawls, who played the TV Show host—and who had many other roles throughout the evening—set the tone with comfortable flair.
If you missed the plays last weekend, there is another chance to see “Queens” on Saturday, March 22 at the Regional Drama Festival, this year at Mill River Union High School. The regional festivals offer the opportunity for OV’s students to meet like-minded students from other schools, see their productions, and compete for a chance to go on to larger festivals, such as the Vermont State Drama Festival and at the New England Festival. We wish them luck, or, more appropriately, to “break a leg.”
An Evening of Short Plays, II
