Expect the unexpected

“I think Steve Martin is a true genius!” said Penta Swanson, a Portland State theater major, describing Martin’s one-act play, WASP, in which she plays a supernatural being (whose identity shall not be disclosed at this time).

Martin, the acclaimed comic, author and Grammy-winner, wrote WASP in 1996. The play is a commentary on classic ’50s America, represented by shows like Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver.

WASP is one of the many plays that will be performed over the next few days during PSU’s Festival of Short Plays. The first performance of WASP took place last night, but it is being performed again tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m., following performances of Throwing Smoke and preceding Far Away (Act I).

Nate Patterson, a theater science graduate student who directed the play, explained that he took on the “challenge” of directing this play because of its “depth and complexity.

“The story is dark and twisted as well as funny,” Patterson said.

“I think the audience automatically will expect that this whole play is supposed to be just laughs. However, there are quite a few tender moments, and they’re almost haunting,” said Elena Afanasiev, a PSU undergrad majoring in theater, who plays the sister in the WASP family.

“It is a clever satire on American values; one of those being the ownership of luxury items bringing happiness. It is a unique viewer experience that takes the audience in unexpected directions,” said Andrew S. Millar, an undergraduate who plays the role of the father.

Echoing the sentiment of the director, Millar also described his role as a challenge, in addition to being “a lot of fun. There are layers to the character I play that are gradually revealed to the audience.”

“WASP is an extraordinary play,” Swanson said. “It really keeps you on your toes as an audience member because it is full of great bits of wisdom. I believe that Steve Martin was writing out of his own experience in 1950s America and his own family.”

Swanson commented on Millar’s father character, saying, “He manages to snap in and out of the superficial persona he projects into the thoughtful, inquisitive human being we see when he drops the mask.”

WASP will be performed on the same night as Far Away, which is directed by Chris Bae, an international undergraduate majoring in theater.

The audience can expect to transition from dark humor to a story “about love,” Bae said.

Far Away, written by British playwright Caryl Churchill, is a play that Bae also describes as “spooky and scary on the surface but, upon looking deeper into the meaning behind short and simple lines and questions in the script, one comes to discover something different.”

Having directed only the first five minutes of this play in his “Directing I” class, Bae realized he “wanted to know more about this play” and selected it to work on for the festival.

Going through the process of reading the script multiple times in preparation for directing, Bae came to realize that “the play is about me. It is about everyone.”

The challenge for Bae was “working with and directing the expressions and the emotional movements of the actors,” whom he has been working with over the past several months.

The scene in Far Away that Bae chose to direct revolves around what seems like a simple conversation between a young girl and her aunt. The young girl asks questions about something “scary” that she saw happening outside her house involving another member of the family.

Not unlike WASP, Far Away will take the audience on a journey of its own.

Bae noted that as students majoring in theater, “We are not all perfectly prepared. We are not professionals.”

This is part of the importance of the festival: the chance to put into practice what has taken place in the classroom up until now—a directorial debut for some, in fact, while others are adding to experience they have brought to the university.

Bae said that, through his direction and production of Far Away, “I have tried to do my best to deliver the message.”

Come what may of the performances and the overall message, for Bae, the completion of this production has been an “extremely huge accomplishment.”

The Festival of Short Plays commenced on Tuesday and runs until Saturday. Students of PSU’s School of Theatre and Film’s “Directing II” class have taken this opportunity to present what they have been working on for the past couple of months to the public.

Each of the plays make up a unique “showcase that has been made possible by a group of highly talented young directors,” said Colin Kane, a theater major and cast member of WASP.

“The process has been a great opportunity for so many actors, especially young actors,” Afanasiev said of putting on not one but seven plays. “It’s so exciting, because we get to see a variety of different plays with different people. I have a friend in every play. I think it should be fun for the audience—they get to see all these different shows. They all have their own spice.”

One need not have a friend in the play to join in, because the festival is free and open to the public.

As an audience member, what might you expect? Any number of emotions or reactions but, in a nutshell, no one said it better than Kane: “Expect the unexpected.”