Skidmore News

Issue date: 3/5/10 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Alex Orthwien Leah Starker '12 and Derek Liakos '12

On Feb. 24, one of the theater department's workshops performed three of David Ives' one-act comedic plays, "English Made Simple" and "The Universal Language" in a studio as small as the environment was informal.

The production, featuring quick-witted dialogue exchanged between comical characters with sharp tongues, was the directorial debut of Ruth Morrison '12.

The first play takes the banal conversations that occur at parties and twists their structure and meanings by having an active narrator analyze awkward social interactions.

The second play is about a couple falling in love after meeting in a fictional, universal language academy. The stage might be small, but the action is not - and the actors truly use all of the small space around them while drops of wisecracks and wordplay splatter everywhere.

Because of the actors' fantastic interaction, the absurd and off-the-wall situations come across as organic and highly entertaining.

"It was so much fun, and the thing I wanted to bring out in this play for the audience was having fun because the actors were having fun," Morrison said.

Morrison hopes to direct more in the future, and judging by the roaring reception of her directorial debut, she probably will.

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