By Ashlyn Armock, Arts Editor
The Aquinas theatre department put on a performance of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind from Feb. 19-22.
The show was directed by three theatre students—Michaela Faith, Gabby Aguilar and Rhodey Matzke— had a seven person cast as well as a three person stage management crew.
Kennedy Mikel consoling Axle Kwiatkowski during one of the plays – Photo by Scott Harmen
The entire cast learned 34 different plays in total so that each night could be a different combination of 30 two minute plays. According to Kennedy Mikel, a senior at Grand Valley State University and a member of the cast, described the individual plays as neo-futurist that tell no particular story.
“These plays are intended to make you laugh, make you think, and at times, make you interact with it,” Mikel said.
Before the play began each member of the audience got a “menu” which had a numbered list containing 30 of the 34 plays that the cast knew. The audience could then use the numbers on the “menu” to call out which play they wanted to see next. The catch for the cast members, along with being timed, was that the numbers never matched up to the same play each night.
Freshman Axle Kwiatkowski explained that due to the plays always getting changed around, the cast did mix up the plays when learning them all.
“Since each play was roughly two minutes it wasn’t too hard to get them memorized,” Kwiatkowski said. “In the beginning it was a bit frustrating to not rely on knowing what was coming next.”
The set, including all the possible number options that the audience members can call out – Photo by Scott Harmen
Many members of the cast had their favorites when it came to which plays they got to perform. “Out of all of the plays my personal favorite was Give and Take.” Kwiatkowski said.
“The Story of Hand and Glove holds a soft place in my heart because I spent a lot of time with my director,” Mikel said. “And my sister helped too, trying to make meaning of it.”
Jonas Grummet and Delaney Pocevich arguing over how to use the hammer that they have – Photo by Scott Harmen
A show with so much viewer involvement required many of their practices to include a practice audience. One of the practice audience members, Freshman Alivia Aguilar, commented on how much fun she thought the show was in general. “It felt like I got to act in it,” Aguilar said. “It was a good experience.”
Information for future shows and tickets can be found in the link below:
The Saint 