By Ashlyn Armock, Arts Editor
Every other year, eligible students are able to direct one act of a play after receiving approval from Aquinas Theatre Director, Scott Harmen. Directing includes figuring out every aspect of the play: lighting, costume design, props, stage design, etc. This year rather than having student One Acts, the student directors and Harmen decided to combine their efforts and direct “one” play called Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind.
Four of the student actors at work, from left to right: Gabrielle lee, Kennedy Mikel, Jonas Grummet, and Axle Kwaitkowski – Photo by Michaela Faith
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, or Too Much Light, will be directed by three student directors: Michaela Faith, Gabby Aguilar, and Rhodey Matzke. Each director will direct ten plays rather than the typical one act of a play.
According to the AQ Theatre’s instagram page “The actors attempt to perform 30 separate plays in 60 minutes while a clock ticks down behind them.” The only catch for actors is that they do not know the order and the audience gets to decide which “mini-play” they want to see next.
“In order to make sure everyone had equal time showing we needed to all choose 30 minute plays.” Faith said after being asked how the decision was made about the play. “After searching for shorter works, Scott suggested a more collaborative full project which made each director much more excited. We’d read and analyzed the show before and unanimously decided to carry through with [Too Much Light].”
The whole idea is new for both the student directors and the actors but the directors are finding it to be a very positive experience. “Seeing different directors’ visions merging […]with the same set of actors will be very interesting in what I think is a good way” Matzke said when describing the differences between doing student directed one acts and Too Much Light.
One of the directors, Gabby Aguilar, at work in the PAC – Photo by Michaela Faith
“I like that for Too Much Light, we all get to collaborate.” Aguilar said. “If we did the one acts, we would mostly be working as solo directors. Getting feedback, suggestions, and generally working with other people has been really nice for me.”
Matzke also shared how excited they are to see how the show works because with the audience involvement, the show will be different every night. “[It’ll] keep things fresh for the actors,” Matzke said. “There’s [also] a lot of improv involved in this show, so preparing the actors for things that could come up during performances is tricky.”
The directors are hoping that the audience will be ready to participate. “Audiences should come prepared to get involved. This play is what the audience makes of it,” Faith said.
Information for future shows and tickets can be found in the link below:
https://www.aquinas.edu/arts-at-aq/performing-arts-center.html
The Saint 