SPA student actors get weird in ‘Absurdity’

 

Ask kids to delve into the “weird and absurd,” and you never know what you’re going to get.

In his second year of teaching at Sequoia Pathway Academy and his first year of teaching acting, Christopher Goodrum is getting his students to do just that in a collection of one-act plays to be performed Nov. 2-3 at 7 p.m.

The show is called “Absurdity.”

Goodrum, often seen with Maricopa Community Theatre, said he wanted to give Maricopans “a taste of what we can do.”

What they will do is an adaptation of Goodrum’s own published work, “Two Souls, One Door.” Two individuals are trapped together playing cards for an eon in an unending room, waiting for the door that can take only one of them. “I love the confusion and wondering,” said Camryn Janssen, who plays Bilbee. “There are so many questions. It’s keeping me intrigued.

Another two-person one-act is “A Matter of Husbands.” It takes place in the dressing room of a famous actress when she is confronted by a woman who suspects her husband is having an affair with the actress. “I love the twist at the end,” said sophomore Dana Couts, who plays the actress.

“The Mad Tea Party” is taken from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Sixth grader Kayla Sherman plays the dormouse in the four-person play full of illogical madness. “I think I fit the part because I’m small and because of my voice,” she said.

Carter Johnson takes the lead in “The Actor’s Nightmare” as an apparent accountant who is mistaken for an understudy and forced on stage without knowing any lines or even the plot as it shifts from play to play. “He thinks he’s in a nightmare,” Carter said.

“Treat or Treat” will be performed by the sixth grade-students. “I had been searching for a Halloween story for years,” Goodrum said. Trick-or-treaters are led to a haunted house. Among them is Elise Densmore, who said she is the twist in the story.

Goodrum said the production is a jumping-off point to build a thriving theater environment at SPA.

 

“Absurdity: A Series of One-Acts”

Cast List

Two Souls, One Door
Joe – Emily Chranowski
Bilbee – Camryn Janssen

A Matter of Husbands
Famous Actress – Dana Couts
Earnest Young Woman – Alissandra Juarez

The Mad Tea Party
Alice – Leah Heieie
Mad Hatter – Anne Monson
March Hare – Amarion Burno
Dormouse – Kayla Sherman

The Actor’s Nightmare
George – Carter Johnson
Meg – Grace Goodrum
Sarah – Brianna Huffaker
Henry – David Velarde
Ellen – Abigail Whiting

Treat or Treat
Ryder – Maegan McCormac
Jodi – Emily Coon
Tyler – Kiana Matsunaga
Ali – Jalisa Gant
Monster – Elise Densmore

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This story appears in the October issue of InMaricopa.