Two one-acts by Cleveland authors were performed at John Carroll University in October of 2001.https://collected.jcu.edu/plays/1125/thumbnail.jp

Keifer, Nancy

Morton, Sarah

English

John Carroll University

John Carroll UniversityCarroll CollectedTheatre Productions Communication & Theatre Arts10-4-2001Love in Pieces and Urban Myths: One-ActsSarah MortonNancy KeiferFollow this and additional works at: http://collected.jcu.edu/playsThis Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication & Theatre Arts at Carroll Collected. It has been accepted for inclusion inTheatre Productions by an authorized administrator of Carroll Collected. For more information, please contact connell@jcu.edu.Recommended CitationMorton, Sarah and Keifer, Nancy, "Love in Pieces and Urban Myths: One-Acts" (2001). Theatre Productions. 122.http://collected.jcu.edu/plays/122]ofin Carro{{ 'University Communications 'Deyartment Presents The Marinello One Acts l .. f)\TJ~ IN PII~(~I~S Written by Sarah Morton Directed by Carol Laursen Written and Directed by Nancy Kiefer Marinello Little Theatre October 4, 5 & 6th 8 p.m. October 7th 2 p.m. ] olin Carro[[ 'University Communications 1Jeyartment VVe[comes you To 1.~()\TJ~ IN I•IJ~(;J~S Written by Sarah Morton Directed by Carol Laursen .Jtna Written and Directed by Nancy Kiefer Marinello Little Theatre Cast (In Order of Appearance) f_,f)lTJ~ IN Pll~f~I~S 1st Piece Ophelia ..... ... .. ......... ...... ............. Elizabeth Krymski Laertes ... .. ......... ...... ... ..... .. ........ Joey Humphries 2nd Piece Orpheus ............................. ....... Eric Smith Eurydice .......... ... ... .. ....... ....... .... Heather Jackson Tiffany/Maryanne ... ..... ....... ....... .. . Sara Lepra Janet/Candice ..... .. .......... . ........... Michelle Price Ellen ... ............. ..... ... ..... . .... ... ..... Erica Wilke Dale ... ... .................. ...... .. ......... Jeff Larson We will donate $1 from the sale of each ticket to the September 11th Fund. This fund is administered by United Way and the New York Community Trust to offer immediate and long term aid to the victims, their families , and the communities affected by the events of September 11 . Meet the Cast l.if)lTJ~ IN J•IJ~f~ES oltl woe ~s VlAe, To ltltwe see111- wltlClt 1 ltltwe see~~~-; see whllt 1 see. -Hamlet by Shakespeare t-tact 1 tl1e L~ps of or-pl1eu.s. all'vct 11~s vu.eLoct1:1 to cl1ar-VV~. tl1e VV~.a~cte"" ctaugl1ter- ofcevu.eter- all'vct 11er- Lor-ct, all'vct bl::J VVI.l::J s~"'-0~""0 w~"" 1:1ou bac~ fmVVI. cteatl-1, 1 wouLct ltlave go~ be~atl-1 tl1e ear-tl-1, all'vct 1'1-Dt tl1e l1oull'vct of PLuto couLct 11ave sta 1:1ect VV~.e, 1'1-Dt tl1e fenl::l VVI.IA"" of gl1osts, cl1ar-o"" at 11~s otAY. 1 wouLct 11ave br-ougl1t l::JOU bacR to L~fe. - Alcestis by Euripides Joey Humphries (Laertes) - This is Joey Humphries' first time acting since his portrayal of a farmer in his 3rd grade play. Thirteen years later, Joey, a senior, has stayed backstage, until today. He has experience building sets and doing lights and costumes for the one act plays and the Fall and Spring Producations in Kulas Auditorium. He is a member of Alpha Psi Omega, a Communications major and a swell guy to know. Oh - and don't forget to listen to his radio show on Monday evenings! Heather Jackson (Eurydice) - Heather has recently turned down a Broadway audition to appear in the JCU One Acts. When asked her thoughts on the play she replied, "I love this play because I've never had the chance to wear a lizard scarf on stage before." Heather was last see hiding out in an annex. Production Staff Stage Manager- Colleen Hylwa (Urban Myths) Bonnie Brunelle (Love In Pieces) Asst. Stage Manager- Sharon Rudolph Asst. Director- Robert Therkelson (Love In Pieces) Sound Board Operator- Diane lvec House Manager/ Ticket Sales-PR Manager/ Publications-Set Designer-Lighting Designer-Eiectrics Crew: Running Crew: Bridget Fox Steve Halody Hannah Fritzrnan Keith Nagy Joe Humphries Charles Strader Mary Beth Mershon Jeannie Kidera Jenny Basa Michelle Lee Price (Janet/Candice) - Michelle is a senior at JCU major-ing in English and Communications. Urban Myths is her acting debut. This past summer she was an intern at WCWS NewsChannel 5 here in Cleveland and hopes to pursue a career in broadcasting upon graduation in May. In her spare time, Michelle continues her lawsuit against Disney-land for having been accosted by one of the Three Little Pigs while visiting the amusement park. Erica Lee Wilke (Ellen) - Erica is a senior Communications major and Political Science minor. In high school , she appeared in The Sound of Music, The Music Man, and Fiddler on the Roof. Urban Myths is her JCU debut. She spent the summer interning at WOIONVUAB 19/43-TV where she had the opportunity to interview pop groups 0-Town and The Back-street Boys. Upon graduation she plans to pursue a career in the news in-dustry as a field reporter. Erica is very happy to have recently successfully completed her gang initiation by grabbing people coming out of shopping malls, gift wrapping them, and locking them in the trunks of their cars. Elizabeth Krymski (Ophelia) - Elizabeth is a junior and this is her third John Carroll Production. Past performances include the role of Bessie in Marvin's Room as well as the character of Miep Gies in The Diary of Anne Frank. Originally from Michigan, Lizzy is a Communications/English major who hopes to someday work in the field of Public Relations. She would like to thank her parents (especially her mother for being such an inspiration) and her friends for their constant love and unending support. Eric Smith (Orpheus) - Eric is a senior at John Carroll University, majoring in Communications. He was raised in the small town of Cranberry, Penn-sylvania, where he learned to be an acrobat and an expert crop harvester. Amazingly, Eric has been cast in every show he has ever auditioned for, which includes, exclusively, Love In Pieces. He enjoys working out and long walks on the beach. Someday, Eric plans to open a martial arts school under the infamous master of the small walking fist, Granel Master Sta. Finally, Eric would like to thank God for sending His Son, his family for the their time, his teachers for keeping him in line, and his friends for their friendship. Jeff Larson (Dale) - In high school Jeff appeared in The Music Man and Rest Assured and starred in the JCU one act production of Halloween last fall. Jeff is a junior Communications major, an RA in Murphy Hall, and does a WJCU radio show on Tuesday mornings. We are fortunate to have Jeff performing with us this weekend since he recently ate Pop Rocks candy, drank Pepsi, and blew up. Jeff continues in his quest to find Elvis and Tupac. Sara Lepro (Maryannmffany) - Sara is a junior Communications major with a Spanish minor. This is her third appearance on the JCU stage. Pre-vious plays include Twilight Los Angeles and The Wheel. She especially thanks her family, the great cast and playwright/director Nancy Kiefer for all she's done. Sara was recently awarded a huge cash settlement from the Disney Corp. for suffering severe emotional trauma when, as a child visiting Disney World, she saw Mickey Mouse and Goofy walking around with their heads under their arms. Center American College Theatre Festival and Fourth Freedom Forum Award for her Holocaust play, Radiant Boys. She is also the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship. Three of Kiefer's plays have been produced at JCU in both Kulas and the Little Theatre; Could Angels be Blessed (world premiere), The Eighth Order (world premiere), and Head of Blue-eyed Man. Urban Myths was a finalist in the 1991 Actor's Theatre of Louisville Ten-minute Play competition. Kiefer has taught in the Com-munications Department at JCU since 1988, teaching a variety of courses including playwriting and screenwriting. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild. She is also very happy to have recently received a check for $5,000 and a free copy of Windows 98 from Bill Gates himself along with a trip to Disney World for being one of the first 1300 people in the US to send Microsoft's E-mail Tracking Message to all the people on her email list! Carol Laursen (Director, Love In Pieces) - Carol Laursen received her MFA in Acting from the Professional Actor's Training Program at Ohio University as well as a BA in Math and Biology from Reed College. In 1977, she inadvertantly joined a creative ensemble and has been acting and directing since. She is pleased to be directing for the first time at JCU where she is beginning her second year teaching for the Communications Department. Ms. Laursen lives in Cleveland Heights with her husband, two children and a recently adopted cat named Pez. Keith Nagy (Set Designer)- Mr. Nagy is an assistant professor for communications at John Carroll University and previously served as Director of Production at Cleveland Opera for 16 years. He also was the resident designer for the Cleveland Opera and has designed sets and lights for such favorites as The Turk in Italy, Hansel and Gretel, Cosi fan Tufte, Rigoletto, La Triviata andCarmen. Mr. Nagy has designed the sets and lights for a number of John Carroll University including Twelfth Night, Twilight Los Angeles, Sunday in the Park with George, Merrily We Roll Along, Buried Child, Lend Me A Tenor, Marvin's Room, Crimes of the Heart and Blithe Spirit. At Lakeland Theatre Mr. Nagy was the set designer for Company, Brighton Beach Memories and light designer for I Do! I Do! He was both lighting and set designer for Death of a Salesman, Arsenic and Old Lace, I Hate Hamlet, and A Little Night Music. Mr. Nagy has just Meet the Production Staff Bonnie Brunelle (Stage Manager, Love In Pieces)- As a senior, Bonnie has yet to grow out of experiencing purely the sake of experience. The cast and crew view her as somewhat of an oddity since she accepted the position of stage manager without expecting credit hours, a work-study paycheck, or even points toward Alpha Si Omega in retum. Verily, she enjoys having an artistic outlet and has worked on six shows at JCU prior to Love in Pieces. She works strictly behind the scenes. Her greatest dream is to stay in school for life to study theology, philosophy and lan-guages, and to avoid a "real" job at all costs. However, she realizes that this is dilusional and possibly selfish, so she has set the more realistic goal of obtaining a doctorate and remaining in academia as an instructor. Did we mention she is the Little Theatre Society secretary? "manu sinistra scribo" Colleen Hlywa (Stage Manager, Urban Myths) - Over the past three years, Colleen has enjoyed working on a variety of shows at JCU. She has appeared on stage in Sunday in the Park with George, The Burial, and Present Tense and worked backstage on Marvin 's Room. As a Communi-cations major, Colleen hopes to graduate and pursue a career in the arts, but for now she is happy with her cocktail waitress job at Club 33 on New Orleans Square in Disneyland where she serves hard liquor to anyone who comes in, including small children. Nancy Kiefer (Director, Urban Myths)- Nancy Kiefer has written many plays, including Gwen and Gwen (Samuel French), The Eighth Order, Could Angels be Blessed, The Illustrated Woman (all with Dramatic Publishing), The Witch of Endor, Dryope and tole, Head of a Blue-eyed Man, A Place at the Feast of Love, and Radiant Boys. Her plays have been widely produced around the country, including New York City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Las Vegas and Kansas City. She is the recipient of three national playwriting awards; Morton R Sarett National Playwriting Award from UNLV for A Place at the Feast of Love, Michelle Renee Gilder-sleeve Award for The Illustrated Woman , and mostly recently a Kennedy Playwright's Note Urban '1yt~s From Aristophanes in the 5th century BC through William Shakespeare, Richard Sheridan, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, Neil Simon, Christopher Durang and Mel Brooks. comedy has always been big business in both theatre and films. Having written both comedic and serious plays and screenplays, I can tell you that writing comedy is a very liberating experience. The comedy writer has far greater freedom than the writer of serious drama. She needn't worry about motivation and logical progression of the story. She need not be consistent, congruous, sane, logical , ordered, or reverent. The comedies-we view in both film and theatre fall into four categories; high or .intellectual, farce or low comedy, generic comedy of the Neil Simon variety, and black or dark comedy. It is into this latter category that Urban Myths falls. This type of comedy generally combines comic and serious material in a harsh, often brutal contrast. The audience's laughter is uneasy, hesitant and frequently bitter. By their very nature, urban legends make marvelous material for this type of play. Ac-cording to urban legend tracker Peter Van Der Unden, they appear mysteriously and spread spontaneously. They contain elements of horror and humor (the perfect combination for a dark comedy) , and make good storytelling. Occasionally they are based on some small grain of truth, but that grain soon gets lost in the gross distor-tions and embellishments that the storytellers add as the legends spread through our culture. As outrageous, bizarre, violent and offensive as urban legends so frequently are, we laugh at them because we do not take them seriously. No real person could possibly be that stupid, gullible, or unlucky. However, despite their dubious origins, Jan Harold Brunvand, English professor at the University of Utah and author of several books on the subject, feels they are an important part of American folklore. In light of the recent horrific events in America, I would like to add that scene one of this play was written ten years ago. Scenes two and three were written last summer, and the play was slotted for production last spring. I mention this because of the violent and irreverent nature of many of the legends and the play's casual attitude towards violence and death. In consideration of the sensi-tivities of audience members, we have deleted certain legends dealing with air travel and some specific violent crimes that were simply too close to the heart of the atrocities committed on September 11th. completed designing both sets and lights for Halle Theatre production of Cabaret. His design work has included opera, ballet, film, live theatre, and industrial shows. His designs have been seen at the Seattle Opera, Opera Carolina, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Michigan Opera Theatre, Connecti-cut Opera and Opera de Puerto Rico. Mr. Nagy's local work in the theatre has been seen at Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Dobama, The Halle Theatre, Karamu, Porthouse Theatre, and Berea Summer Theatre. Mr. Nagy, who is a member of the United States Scenic Artists local #829, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from California State Poly-technic University and his Master's degree from Ohio University. Mr. Nagy's most recent credits include light and settings for the Halle Theatre's productions of Rags and Cabaret and lighting design for Dobama's critically acclaimed production of Wit. Charles Strader (Eiectrics Crew) - Charles Strader is a freshman at John Carroll and this is his first set of JCU One Acts. His previous acting experience includes playing Richard Stanley in The Man Who Came to Dinner. He has memorized and acted alone in The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Titanic, Is There A Comic In The House and, The Hardy Boys and The Mystery of Where Babies Come From. This year, however, he is trying lighting by learning from Joe Humphries, the best there is in this field. Despite him being vertically challenged, he thinks this that he could become big in show business. He hopes to learn much from this experience and one day show the theatre goers of JCU what he's got. Until that time, and for these plays, when you see the lights go on, think about him and know he is watching every move you make. Special Thanks to ... LOVE IN PIECES Benny Sheere Celeste Karen Korzenko Kelly Klirna Ed Kernan Chris Polonsky Roger Truesdell Eric Granjon Trevor Miranda for finding the teeth Urb~t~ f1~ths Karen Gygli Keith Nagy Hannah Fritzman Jill Sberna 

Love in Pieces and Urban Myths: One-Acts

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Love in Pieces and Urban Myths: One-Acts

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