Computers, transitions and the angst that accompany them -- how appropriate at an Internet-obsessed College on the verge of sending its graduating class to the next phase life.
The Pretty How Town student theater company will address those topics and more this weekend when they perform "Camelot.com," a comedic drama by Morgan Mitchell '98.
Dating on the Internet is perhaps the quintessential example of a "sketchy" situation -- and that is what Mitchell explores with "Camelot.com."
The play is about four post-college 20-somethings, two of whom meet on-line, form a relationship in cyberspace chatrooms and get engaged.
Deena and Morely, played by Rachel Meltzer '01 and Jacques Dorce '01 respectively, are both romantic but slightly antisocial people who like to view the world with their own fairy tale mentalities. So they do what most people do in chatrooms.
They lie.
Morely wants to be hip, so he claims he is from New York City. Deena, entranced by the beauty and history of the South, pretends she is from Charleston, S.C.
There's only one problem -- they're both from the same town in Missouri. And the situation only becomes more complicated when it turns out that Deena's friend Hester, played by Mitchell, is friends with Morely's friend Bus, played by Jordan Cortez '01.
Mitchell was inspired to write "Camelot.com" when she found out that her brother got engaged to a woman he met over the Internet.
"He was head-over-heels in love, and I thought it was the weirdest thing in the world," she said.
Her brother's situation was more normal than the one that arises in the play, but she said it made her "interested in what could become of sketchy beginnings."
Originaly, Mitchell's second play, "Vowel Movements," was supposed to be performed but has been canceled at the last minute.
The comedy poses unusual problems for the actors, most of whom will make their Dartmouth stage debuts this weekend.
"Camelot.com" is not just a normal play in which the characters walk around the stage and interact with each other -- most of the time they simply sit at computers. The actors must work to hold the audience's interest despite their immobility.
Andy Hatcher '99 founded Pretty How Town during the Winter term as a troupe that would benefit charity and increase student involvement in drama.
The play's funny premise and the added plus that Pretty How Town was named Best New Organization by the Committee on Student Organizations this week ensure that the audience should be ready for a treat.
Admission to the plays is free, and the audience members are encouraged to donate money to the AIDS Community Resource Network, ACORN.
Performances are in the Collis Cafe on Friday at 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m.
