The Experimental Theater Board, a theater company managed entirely by students, will present its annual production of student-written and directed one-act plays at 8 p.m. nightly on Thursday, April 30, Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2. The performances, which are free and open to the public, will take place in the Nourse Little Theater, located on the lower level of Carleton’s Nourse Hall.
The production will feature performances of three original plays written, directed and performed entirely by Carleton students:
Volcano, written by sophomore English major Morgan Holmes (Helotes, Texas) and directed by freshman Lee Conrads (Prairie Village, Kan.), tells the tale of a Pompeian woman who escaped the catastrophic volcanic eruption which destroyed her home, only to find herself in the modern city, attempting to remember how things were before. Volcano is described by the ETB as “a play that questions life after death and death after life.”
The Blank Slate Experiment is written and directed by first-year student Audrey Carlsen (Seattle), and described as “a play that questions reality, truth, and the value of ignorance.” The Blank Slate Experiment provides a curious look into the lives of three characters – named A, B, and C – who have lived their entire lives within a single room, without knowledge of the outside world. However, one morning they awake to find that their friend D has vanished, an event that forces them to confront their reality, and make a difficult choice between comfortable ignorance and troubling truths.
The final one-act, The True Tale of Cupid and Psyche, written by senior Chemistry major Jennifer Bigelow (Burien, Wash.) and directed by freshman Alex Brewer (Mount Prospect, Ill.), is a reinterpretation of the classic Greek myth. Cupid, son of the goddess of love and himself a god, falls in love with Psyche, the ugliest woman he has ever seen. The result, according to Brewer, is “an epic adventure of passion, lust, and betrayal.”
Nourse Hall is located just off First and Nevada Streets in Northfield. For further information and disability accommodations, contact mackink@carleton.edu.