By Haleigh Miller, ’12, News Editor
The Upper School fall production this year is All in the Timing, a collection of one-act plays written by American playwright David Ives. The plays are brief and comedic and employ wordplay.
Mr. Mark Femia, director of drama & vocal music, selected All in the Timing because he “wanted something very different from what [he has] done the last two years…something a little more contemporary… cerebral.” All in the Timing, according to Femia, is “a little more absurd.” Each mini-scene makes fun of language, or culture, or history, Femia said, “in a really kind of tongue-in-cheek way.”
Emily Sprinkle, ’12, is also enthusiastic about the production. “I really like that, because it’s all one-acts, All in the Timing really lets everybody participate, and there isn’t one lead part. Everybody’s more or less even.”
This year, a notable number of freshmen are taking part in the play: 7 of the 13 cast members. The 7 young newcomers to CCDS theater are Nathan Breneman, Holly Dayton, Sarah Gamblin, George Koglmeier, Jenny March, Annie Nesbitt, and Clara Smith. Mr. Femia attributes this freshman majority to CCDS’s open and inviting atmosphere, which extends into the drama department. Other students in the play are sophomores Josh Motley, Rebecca Miller, and Emily Sprinkle, juniors Ilana Habib and Cody Pomeranz, and Senior Micaela Mullee.
Femia’s personal favorite part of the production is called “Words, Words, Words” and deals with the Infinite Monkey Theorem, or the idea that if a monkey was locked in a room with a typewriter and typed for an infinite amount of time, he would eventually write the works of Shakespeare. “This is a scene that actually tests that theory,” says Mr. Femia. “Three monkeys are locked in a room, and they’re talking about why they’ve been locked in a room to type Hamlet, and that’s the whole scene, them talking about why they’re in there, and how they don’t understand why, and how they’re supposed to do it.”
All in the Timing consists of 14 scenes, but CCDS is performing only 8. Other selected performances include “Sure Thing,” about a man and a woman who meet in a café and have a difficult time making conversation, and “The Philadelphia,” which relates to a man in a bizarre new state where, in every restaurant, he must ask for the opposite of what he wants. “Variations on the Death of Trotsky” spoofs the death of Leon Trotsky, which occurs several times via an ax wound he received 36 hours earlier. “Mere Mortals” is the discussion of three construction workers about how each of them is really a different long sought-after or extraordinary individual.
All in the Timing premieres in the Keeler Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. and will also run on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 24 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Photo by Ilana Habib.