By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
In Bowling Green, gender-flipping on stage is pretty much the norm, especially when our local Shakespeare companies were active. We’ve seen a female Hamlet.
The one-act plays now on stage at the high school take this fluidity a giant step forward.
The four one-act plays, written, directed, and performed by high school students, address issues of love, identity, and mental health. And in the process they cast any gender expectations to the wind.
In “Bi-Curious” written and directed by Ren Clifford, when Damien (Steven Edwards) realizes he is sexually attracted to his friend Riley that boyfriend is played by a female, Rowan Allen, not that it matters. Damien comes to this realization as his sister Dani (Sophia Kelly) also finds love with her friend Stevie (Katie Mangan).
In the slap stick “The Game of Love,” written and directed by Elle Mitsch with co-director Audrey Nester, the contestants vying to go out on a date with Lilac (Lia Miller) are a motley crew of characters with an assortment of gender identities. The contestants project a range of personalities, from the macho blowhard contestant one (Lauren Carmen) to contestant five, a corny jokester (Jeremiah Hanson) with a cowboy (Rose Walters), party girl (Alex Porter), and flirt (Kylen Dowlen) in between. The randy, in-your-face host (Drew Thomas) plays out his own layers of self-motivation.
The show opens with Rory Mott’s “Grey is Purple” about a student Grey (Ramona Foreman) trying to navigate the rules of a new school where girls must wear pink and boys blue, and violators face getting beat up. She teams up with Theo (Nevaeh Martinez), who like her prefers to wear purple, to shake up the status quo. The short play addresses the responsibility of authority, depicted here by the principal (Tyler Boice), and the need for allies, here represented by Whitney Bechstein as Cleo who risks alienating her best friend Domi (Allie Parish).
Led by Katie Mangan and Ren Clifford with Elle Mitsch with the improv troupe – Drew Thomas, Ramona Foreman , Rory Mott, Audrey Nestor, Rose Walters, Steven Edwards, Hunter King, Hazel Gedelian, Tyler Boice, and Cody Ray – delivers a set of comic skits based on audience suggestions. Absurdity reigned as we met someone who lost control of their lion during a game of fetch, people who just don’t know how to unplug a toilet, and someone giving a slide presentation, with video and audio, on why seals have fur.
After they left the stage, the trigger warning came. Those who may be emotionally triggered by a discussion of suicide were invited to step out while Cody Ray’s “The Way I See It” unfolded. Alex (Lauren Noon) struggles with issues of self-worth. Trey Ladler gives voice to her thoughts telling her she’s worthless and twisting every encounter into a negative way. Even an invitation by her friend Onyx (Audrey Nester) to coffee is turned into a reason for self-loathing. Can Onyx, her teacher (Jaycob Bagrowski) or parents (Bagrowski and Hadley Shuey) get through to her?
It’s tough stuff, and unfortunately an issue too many teenagers grapple with.
These plays show young writers, directors and actors tackling the issues they see around them, and doing it with feeling, humor and insight. In the process of exploring their present, they also manage to envision a gender fluid future.
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The 2022 One-Acts will be staged tonight (Jan. 27) and Friday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $7 for students and $10 for adults.
