By Matthew Freeman
Gargoyle senior editor
Posted Thursday, April 6, 2006, The OG, arts

[Note: This is the second in a three-part series of articles by cast members of “Story Theatre,” Uni's 2006 spring play, which will be performed tonight, Friday, and Saturday in the North Attic Playhouse. The first part, by Max Goldberg, appeared Wednesday. Tomorrow: Emma Anselin looks back at opening night.]

After a literal sausage-fest with Max Goldberg and Tom Wiltzius at Papa Del's and an unfortunate White Sox defeat, I returned back to a lethargic “Story Theatre” cast loitering in the first floor of Uni.

While underclassmen labored away in the attics moving heavy risers from place to place, the seniors entertained themselves by singing Christmas carols in the stagnant elevator.

Unlike “Rumors,” the last play I was involved in, “Story Theatre” has come along quite nicely in rehearsals. Although many costume changes are being made last minute and a few scenes need to be cleaned up, this is nothing like the mess we had to frantically work with in the final rehearsals of “Rumors,” which was almost entirely a senior cast (except for junior Martin Geiger).

While this is our last play as seniors and we feel perfectly justified in letting things go lax, underclassmen still feel the need to work hard to impress the director who will decide their fate in future theatre productions.

Some in the cast, freshmen even, feel the need to yell at us to get us motivated. Thinking back on my own freshman year, I can't help but chuckle at the gall of some of the youngsters. Despite their most earnest efforts, our seniority trumps their determination, and we will continue to work at our own pace.

After the first couple hours of slowly arranging costumes and getting ready for the play, we went into a breakneck pace of acting on stage, running off to change and collect our cast members for each act and trying to hit our cues.

During breaks, each cast member relaxes in his or her own way, some by eating (a big no-no while in costume), some by doing their calculus homework, and my personal favorite, rocking out to music from the stereo. As the play came to a close it was a consensus that everything went more or less as planned, so we're confident coming into the opening-night performance that the play will go well.

This play has given each cast member a chance to experiment with costumes, props, and acting; the elemental nature of the play even allows for adding and changing of lines. Although “Story Theatre” has been performed many times in various productions, this play will have a particularly Uni feel.

In this play, which features several small stories and fables, I've been cast (hopefully not typecast) as a sinister element, appearing repeatedly throughout the stories as anything from a flesh-eating murderer to a downright cruel older brother. So with a simple warning that these seemingly juvenile and recognizable tales carry a rather dark element (me), I do hope you'll come out and enjoy the bright and flavorful spring play at least once in the next few days.

[Note: A version of this article can also be found as an April 6 entry in the Gargoyle staff blog.]