Scene & Heard: Molly's Mainstage Theatre Festival at Harton Theater

A Student Play Festival fully realized by the Students of Southern Arkansas University Theatre Program. 

Shows include:

Sure Thing - By: David Ives

A man (Bill) and a woman (Betty) meet by chance in a café. Bill tries to strike up a conversation, but every time he says something that might ruin the moment, a bell rings, and the dialogue resets. Each “reset” gives the characters another chance to start over, adjusting their responses until they find common ground.Through this rapid-fire series of restarts, they navigate awkward silences, clumsy pickup lines, political differences, and incompatible interests. Each misstep is erased by the bell, and a new version of the conversation begins, with slightly different choices.Eventually, the resets lead Bill and Betty to a moment of connection: they agree to go out together, ending on the possibility of romance

Actors Nightmare - By: Christopher Durang

The Actor’s Nightmare follows George, an ordinary man who is mistaken for an understudy and forced onstage without knowing his lines or even what play is being performed. He stumbles through scenes from Hamlet, Endgame, Private Lives, and A Man for All Seasons, growing more panicked as the plays blur together. The absurd performance builds to his character’s execution, capturing the classic “actor’s nightmare” of being unprepared onstage.

The Bear - By: Anton Chekhov

A grieving widow, Popova, has shut herself away to mourn her late husband. Her solitude is interrupted by Smirnov, a rough, hot-tempered landowner who arrives to collect a debt. Their quarrel escalates into insults, a challenge to a duel, and unexpected sparks of attraction. By the end, anger gives way to passion, and the two realize they may be falling in love.

The Sandbox - By: Edward Albee

An elderly woman is brought to the beach by her middle-aged daughter and son-in-law, who treat her with cold detachment as she nears death. While a silent “Young Man” practices calisthenics nearby, the family’s shallow conversations unfold until the woman peacefully accepts her death, with the Young Man revealed as a symbolic figure of the Angel of Death.

Trfiles - By: Susan Glaspell

In a rural farmhouse, men investigate the murder of a farmer while dismissing the concerns of their wives. As the women notice “trifles” the men overlook—a broken birdcage, a dead canary—they piece together the motive: the wife killed her husband after years of oppression. The women choose to hide this evidence, showing solidarity in the face of male condescension.