The Junior One Acts

Last night I went to The Junior One Acts at the Black Box Theatre in the Visual Communications Building (VCB) on campus.

The Junior One Acts consisted of six short one-act plays (about 20 minutes each) that were all written, directed, produced, and performed by students. All of the sets were also hand-made by students. Basically, it was an entirely student-run production and it was pretty cool. The Black Box Theatre is basically a room with seating on three sides and a curtain on the other. The stage is in the middle of the room, creating an interactive experience for the audience and actors/actresses. The theatre is all black, so there is no limitations on how the set can look.

I had never been to a production in the Black Box Theatre, but I was impressed. All of the students involved were in the MTA 374 class, nicknamed "Studio 374." The plays were all funny and entertaining, the props and the sets were excellent, and the acting was good. My favorites were the play called "Helter Skelter," about two serial killers who live together and their domestic arguments over keeping a clean house, and the play called "Rusty Pipes" about Mario and Luigi of the Mario Brothers, 30 years after their fame has faded away. The body parts in "Helter Skelter" were amusingly life-like and the Mario pipe (the signature green pipe used to transport places) was life-sized and looked like the real thing—and it actually worked!

Overall I was impressed, and I look forward to checking out more events at the Black Box Theatre in the future.