Posted on: Saturday, April 9, 2005
STAGE REVIEW
'University' defines student life in well-acted, energetic playlets
By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic
Few people have heard of the 10-minute play. Fewer still have seen one.
A collection of 10-minute plays
8 p.m. Saturday and
April 14-16
Leeward Community College Lab Theatre
$5 455-0549 The LCC production gives its cast the chance to alternate in meaty roles and gives its audience plenty of variety. With something new starting every ten minutes, there's little chance to get settled or bored.
Each playlet tells a full story. Collectively, "University" defines the college years as the last protective cocoon before the scary onset of real life.
Scene 1: Two upper classmen delight in frightening a new freshman.
Scene 2: Three roommates flip a coin to win a chance at bagging a shy, but rich, classmate.
Scene 3: Four sprinters on a relay team try to make sense of their losing a big track meet.
Scene 4: An unattractive young man and a sexy blonde strike an uneasy, three-date bargain — specifically prohibiting touching.
Scene 5: Three girlfriends, frightened by what life holds in store, sing themselves to sleep with a childhood lullaby.
Scene 6: A young woman is afraid of being alone on a summer trip to Europe.
Scene 7: After a string of failed relationships, a girl likens herself to a solitary sailor, alone in a boat.
Scene 8: The only male player on the woman's basketball team he has forced to integrate, becomes desirable while bungling his opportunity to play in a losing game.
Scene 9: Morning-after recriminations just might reunite the girl who had an abortion with the boy she didn't tell about it.
Scene 10: Graduating seniors get a surprise visit from a dropout former classmate.
Pua'ena Ahn is excellent as the failed dopehead who would like to connect with his former pals, but knows he cannot. Maria Canapino is fun as the angry blonde who takes no pleasure in being hit upon, and Ryan Sutherland is filled with bottled-up energy as the still virginal graduate student that gamely tries to strike up a conversation.
Randy Bisquera wrings lots of physical comedy as the young Hungarian eager for a sleepover with an American co-ed and Bryahn Godson brings real intensity to roles as an overly competitive runner and aborted father.
And Brooke Jones, Nalani Yee Poong, and Rachel Schack share a tender and heartbreaking moment as young women singing to themselves in their sleeping bags.
"University" offers an interesting dramatic form with emerging young actors — all in easily swallowed, bite-sized pieces.
Now Leeward Community College gives us an evening of ten — count 'em — ten 10-minute plays in its laboratory theater. All are written by Jon Jory under the collective title of "University," directed by Paul Cravath, and acted with real feeling by university students, who look and sound like — real university students.
'University'
