Shepherd University’s Contemporary Theater Studies Program showed Safety Zone Feb. 20-22 at the Marinoff Theater.
Safety Zone was a gameshow style play with “commercial breaks” featuring Shepherd students in skits about different fears and scenarios. With this back and forth between comedic gameshow and timely fear-based skits the theater department was able to create a tasteful production that critiqued our current political and social climate.
The show started off with a bang with Shepherd student Avery Copenhaver as the gameshow host Rick Roll running out, scaring actors on stage. This is followed by a swift introduction of what the audience should expect, where we are told the show needs audience participation. We cut to what is described as a commercial break in which the lights are dimmed and the music, played by another Shepherd student, Sophie Alexander, becomes dramatic, and a group of student actors come out. The actors then proceed to introduce the audience to different fears. This same pattern is repeated throughout the entire play, creating an enticing flow.
On the gameshow side of things Copenhaver engages the audience members, bringing them down to be contestants in different trivia games all surrounding phobias. We get student, Juniper Elmer, presenting the contestants with different silly prizes. The quick and comedic relationship built between contestant and host was entertaining and had audience members in fits of laughter.
On the commercial side of things, we see student actors criticize current issues in skit format. A skit from students, Brooklyn Gholston and Wendolin Rodriguez, playing off of misreading social situations. This was done in a comedic court room style skit where the audience in the head of a woman trying to figure out if a man likes her or he was just being nice. We then got another skit with student, Giovanni Romero, talking about the fear of being from a different country in America. This skit starts off funny with the presence of puppets but seamlessly moves into the fear and expectations that come with being an immigrant in America. A third skit from student, Alex Whitler where he goes on a tangent about Thomas the Train, a children’s show, which had the entire audience in stitches. The audience learns that there is seemingly no point to the rant, but through this we see a fear of not being taken seriously.
Safety Zone gave the audience no choice but to be engrossed in the production through humor and emotion. It was a tasteful way of critiquing modern media and our current political climate. Sadly, as of right now Shepherd University’s Contemporary Theater Studies Program does not have any upcoming plays.
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