Experiment!
Triple treat at WCC
by Christopher Key
Whatcom Community College’s Experimental Theatre Project has been combining some rather potent chemicals in the basement laboratory and is unleashing the results on an unsuspecting world this week. The scientific method, when applied to theatre, means that the director is testing hypotheses to see what works and what doesn’t. This can lead to mixed results, but the process is, as Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating, Captain, but illogical.” Of course, anyone who tries to apply logic to theatre is probably a Vulcan and I think I’ve probably mixed that metaphor enough.
The current offering from the project is a sort of post-modern Chautauqua, with olio acts interspersed among three short plays. As the audience enters, four actors stand in the corners of a square, backed by four musicians. The actors move around and through square and as each moves, a specific instrument plays. The instruments consist of a snare drum, a cymbal, a cowbell and a didgiridoo. Seemingly moving at random, the actors test the abilities of the musicians to play or not depending on which actor is moving. At first, it is confusing until you clue into what is going on and then it becomes hypnotic and quite lovely.
Ubiquitous Nathan Dodge then delivers a raucous monologue that I will not spoil for you because the olio acts may change from night to night. I hope you see and hear Nathan’s
Next comes a piece directed by John Gonzales with the pithy title “Of Spiders and Snakes and Other Pestiferous Personages.” This consists of five actors reciting poetry about our multi-legged friends by Donne, Barton, Blake, Howitt, Whitman, Dickenson and others. Some of the actors in this piece are first-time performers and it showed. Nothing to be ashamed of. That is what the scientific, and theatrical, method is all about.
The second olio bit featured the delightful Alyssa Flaherty as a parochial school teacher trying to explain human reproduction to her class without violating any of her vows. It features a banana and a doughnut and was a very (re)productive experiment.
Sister Alyssa demonstrates the ins and outs of human reproduction to her class of innocents.
For those of us whose memories seem to be deteriorating rapidly, the second play was nothing short of frightening. It’s called “Zero Sum Mind,” written by Stephen Gregg and directed by the mad scientist Joel Simler. It’s an experiment in economics and psychology that will have you wishing you could have taken that last offramp from the information superhighway.
The third olio is set to a tune by Nathan Dodge called “Summer Girl” and features the dancing of a lovely and gifted woman whose name I can’t identify in the program. My apologies to you for succumbing to deadline pressures and not giving you the credit that is due. Mea maxima culpa.
The final experiment demonstrates that the luminous Shu-ling Zhao is as gifted a director as she is an actor. She has taken an August Strindberg piece called “The Stronger” that was written for two actors and expanded it to include five actors in a sort of Greek Chorus interpretation. It is a grand experiment that pays off very well.
Rather than try to sort out the actors and musicians by show, I will just say that they all are worthy of the experiment: Erika Almakaar, Madeline Engar, William Lowry, Lance Rogers, Brandon Stremlar, Trevor Van Houten, Todd Gibbs, Tim Greger, Evan Krause, Alice Despopoulos, Alyssa Flaherty, Todd Gibbs, Joel Simler, Cori Olmstead, and Bree Whinnery.
3 Plays 3 Directors plays June 4 – 6 at Whatcom Community College’s Syre Student Center Black Box Theatre. Tickets are $5 at the door. It’s a grand experiment.
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