By Amelia Arvesen, staff writer
“Cheese-balls, beards, and Mr. Peanut,” said drama teacher Laura Woods, were the topic of discussion recently for the play production class.
Since the beginning of the semester, seven students worked on an Absurdist one-act play called “The Book of Liz.” The other students worked on separate scenes and monologues, two of which won awards.
The play, scenes, and monologues were performed at the Bob Smart Theatre Festival on Jan. 16, against 42 other West Coast high school, and again at Cal this week.
Absurdist plays express the belief that human existence has no meaning and, as a result, all communication fails. Absurdist theater is similar to Vaudeville and has dialogue full of cliches and nonsense.
The play was about an Amish woman named Elizabeth Donderstock (Marissa Dadiw). She had made cheese-balls since she was young and also struggled with a sweating disorder.
She met quirky characters such as Mr. Peanut (Molly Martin), a Ukrainian couple (Molly Martin and Aron Garst), gay waiters (John Sexton and Aron), and an alcoholic (John).
The experience taught Elizabeth many new things about the real world, including what a breakfast burrito was, but she started to feel out of place.
When her new employer at the Plymouth Crock Family Restaurant, Duncan (John), requested that she get her sweating disorder surgically fixed and wear a scandalous uniform, Liz draws the line because his requests were against her morals.
She returned home to her Amish town of Cluster Haven only to find out that the restaurant where she used to make cheese-balls was closing. Brother Brightby (Aron), the man who took over her job, wasn’t as talented at making cheese-balls as she was.
It turned out that Brightby had been missing a very important ingredient that only Liz could provide. Sweat!
Marissa, a senior, said her role as Liz tested her comfort zone because she hadn’t acted in a comedic role before this performance.
Before each scene, Marissa was sprayed and sponged down with water in order to represent Liz’s sweating disorder.
“It was nerve-wracking at first,” said Molly, a junior. “But then it was just like a normal rehearsal.”
After each show, students were provided with feedback from theater professionals in attendance.
Senior Katie Nerheim performed a comedic scene with Marissa and said that their feedback was helpful.
“They told us that they liked our confidence and we had good comedic timing,” said Kaie.
Although the class didn’t win an award at the Bob Smart Drama Festival, it was a good learning experience, Molly said. Drama teacher Laura Woods agreed.
“I think the actors did as well as expected,” said Woods, who directed the play.
Junior Zach Stalcup won the award for “most improved monologue” and junior Kelly Iaquinta and junior Katie Meisel won “most improved scene.”
This year was the first year where scenes and monologues were performed.
“When they look at the little details they know how to make them come out in the scene,” said Kelly.
