In WiRED, a self-described "24-hour playwriting experience," four pairs of student playwright-directors write, cast, rehearse and perform their plays in exactly one day. The madness began at 8 p.m. on Friday when the playwrights were given a prompt childhood dreams to jumpstart the creative process. The writer-director pairs then had 12 hours until they handed in their scripts, and the actors arrived at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning for casting.
Each termly production of WiRED features a unique prompt which is "meant to hinder and inspire," production manager Olivia Baptista '12 said. Baptista, who has been the production manager of WiRED since spring 2010 when she took over from Daniella Sloane '10, will pass the torch to Amber Porter '14 and Diane Chen '14 next term, both of whom served as production stage managers for the most recent WiRED production.
Baptista, Porter and Chen did much of the behind-the-scenes grunt work in order to make sure the whole operation went smoothly. The trio ran trips to the grocery store to purchase food for the writers and were in charge of booking the rehearsal spaces overnight, coordinating schedules, gathering props and keeping everyone awake, according to Baptista.
While there have been numerous mishaps in years past, "luckily nothing bad happened" this year, according to Baptisa.
"There have been terms where the fire alarm would go off in the [Hopkins Center], and we'd have to run over here at 4 in the morning to let the writers back in," Baptista said. "And we've had people who are picky eaters who'll call me in the middle of the night."
While three of the winter's showcase's four featured plays were comedies, WiRED has seen all genres pop up at some point or another, according to Baptisa.
"The plays are constantly different we've had musicals, we've had farce comedies, dramas, rom-coms," Baptista said. "People write different kinds of plays from the same prompt."
"That Just Happened," written and directed by Brynne Weeks '12 and LJ Sconzo '12, presented a mishmash of improbable childhood adventures featuring Sherlock Homie not to be confused with the better-known detective character George W. Bush, three sirens and Jesus. A particularly nonsensical scene from "That Just Happened" that encapsulates the bizarre nature of WiRED involved the former U.S. President, played by Sconzo, repeating the line, "Gotta pay the troll toll if you wanna get in this boy's hole," recalling the recent hazing discussions around campus. As Sconzo repeated the chant, an overeager eight-year-old little brother, played by Becky Niemiec '13, searches for an object in a "kiddie pool," but instead pulls out several artificial limbs, old food and an assortment of other vomit-inducing tokens.
Sarah Jewett '12, Kate Miller '12 and Julia Schneider '12 continued the absurdity, performing as the three sirens as they dripped water all over themselves in a mockingly seductive fashion, before turning Sherlock Homie into a frog. The play ended with Sconzo's punctuated and drawn-out line, "That just happened," which, while kitschy, was the only way to adequately describe the previous 20 minutes.
The next play, "Secret Stars," written and directed by Cooper Stimson '13 and Luke Katler '15, started off slowly, featuring extensive monologues by the two protagonists: an overweight wannabe-ninja played by Jaymes Sanchez '13 and a gun-slinging CIA agent who wants to be Miley Cyrus played by Margot Yecies '15. The play began with an introduction of Katler as the "Four Loko Ninja," who stole the performance each time he reappeared as the sword-wielding ninja.
Rife with sexual innuendoes and general inappropriateness, "Secret Stars" revealed some particularly shining moments, including a hilarious drunken rambling about the origins of prunes versus plums and an impressively choreographed split-stage sequence in which Sanchez and Yecies tested out their ninja and lip-syncing abilities in tandem.
It was remarkable that the directors and actors of "Secret Stars" were able to pull this off in so little time, but the hard work was apparently worth it, as it received a loud and positive crowd reaction.
A dramatic play by Jonathan Greig '12 and Teghvir Sethi '12, "Are There Foxes Where We're Going," fell flat when sandwiched in with the comedies. It did, however, present an endearing portrait of a father and daughter a story about growing up and moving on as they pursue their shared interest in foxes. The play, a more melancholy tale than the other two, featured long, heavy pauses and toned down the raucousness of the audience during the more ludicrous works.
Ending WiRED on a happy note was "Present," written and directed by both Laura Neill '13 and Max Gottschall '15. Featuring only two characters Johnny played by Mike McDavid '15 and Mary played by Lizzy Southwell '15 the play is about a woman throwing herself a pity party on her 35th birthday.
The present in the title refers to Johnnny himself as he proposes to Mary, echoing the pair's "fake" marriage nearly 25 years earlier, as 12-year-olds. A predictable but still funny play, it catered to audience's romantic sensibilities when the characters finally exchanged several steamy, on-stage smooches, obliterating Mary's earlier assumption that Johnny was gay.
Overall, this term's production of WiRED was a resounding success, impressively showing off what some of this campus's creative minds can make, even while sleep-deprived.
WiRED occurs each term and is presented by the theater department and the Displaced Theater Company.
