BWW Blog: Alyssa Sileo - The Art of the One-Act: GCIT 2019's SHORT AND SWEET

There's a solid reason why the Sophomore One-Acts Festival at my school is called Short and Sweet. These little bites of theatre are a delight to watch, study, and perform.

I have such a close relationships with one-acts-the first pieces of theatre I wrote were one-acts. It was during my own Sophomore One-Acts festival in March 2015 when I acting clicked for me the first time. A group of my classmates is taking the one-act The Cagebirds by Dave Campton this June to International Thespian Festival. (We just can't get away from this play that was born for us in January 2015).

Naturally, I was looking forward to my sophomores' own one-acts. These performances are traditionally some of the most memorable moments for a GCIT Drama student. This year's festival was specially structured as "Live from SNS-" using "Short and Sweet" to play off Saturday Night Live. The live studio audience entered the Short and Sweet Studios directed by audience coordinators and headset-clad crew members. A intro, recalling the opening credits of SNL, played after the first one-act, played on the cyc. The visible segues between the one-acts featured SNS host Joey Bennett, acclaimed GCIT funny-guy. Entries made by characters, costume changes, and set shifts were entirely shown in the wingless proscenium.

The SNS theme of this festival really added a fun touch to this tradition. The audience was tuned into the process an actor must go through to put on several characters in one night. I always love anything in theatre that allows the audience to not only observe but understand what is happening during those two magical hours.

One-acts are the perfect thing to hand arts students. I love the challenge they present. As a writer, I'm able to appreciate the structure of one-acts; sometimes I think it's harder to craft a good one-act than a full-length. You don't have as much time or as many pages to flesh out the situation. You have to ask the audience for the same amount of investment as you do for a longer piece. As for the one-act challenge for the performer-you can't be afraid to become a character immediately. There's no "warming into it" allowed. One-acts force you to know a character. I recall this in my own one-act festival, and my character, the bird Gloom. I learned how to conjure her up in a moment's notice, and have been able to call on her for my January Thespian Festival, and will have to say hello to her again this June.

I could tell that my sophomores knew their friends on the pages each of their pieces. These sometimes bizarre plots and zany characters were so brilliantly portrayed by every member of the cast. I have to give a shout-out to a member of my Drama Family. In our program, we have bigs and littles, much like a sorority, and they're named after Greek gods and goddesses. (GCIT loves Greek Theatre.) My sophomore "little" of my Apollo family is Emma Kelly. She played four extremely varying characters throughout the night, my favorite of hers being the stuffy and conservative leader "Grass #8" in the terrifically engaging "one-act" They Eat Grass, Not Zebras by Dara Murphy. This one-act is about an intruder dandelion in a field of grass-you can imagine how wacky that gets. Grass #8 is convinced that the dandelion has leave their flower patch since it isn't "uniform." I'm not used to seeing my friend play a villain of sorts, so I was so proud to see her do an awesome job. The selection of one-acts, including Playwrighting 101 by Rich Orloff and Oh My God, It's Another Play by Don Zolidos, were love letters to all of the things theatres and plays can do to an audience and its performers.

I am continually impressed with 2019. It's always a pleasure to watch them perform, and I'm happy to work with sophomores in Urinetown, including my Apollo family member Emma. It's something special when a group of your friends can use a night to make you fall in love with theatre even more. I'm sure they'll continue to make me laugh, smile, and love my art more and more.

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