Two actors walked onto the stage; a woman wearing nothing but a towel, and a man in his underwear. They began to argue about the man's choice to play Russian roulette, which is spinning the cylinder of a revolver loaded with only a single bullet, and pulling the trigger.
This one-act play, entitled "Click," opened "A Shel Silverstein Evening," a student-directed performance of author Shel Silverstein's short plays and poetry last Friday and Saturday evening in the Fine Arts Center of the University of Massachusetts.
"Click" is not a work that most people associate with Silverstein, who is most known for his children's books such as "The Giving Tree" and "Where the Sidewalk Ends."
Indeed, the aim of "A Shel Silverstein Evening" was to expose the audience to Silverstein's adult literature, while also revisiting his childhood stories and poetry, said Jenna-Lee Carreiro, the director and a senior theater major.
The children's poem, "Hug O' War," was performed by assistant director and 2006 theater alumnus Troy David Mercier. Mercier recited the poem in a high-pitched voice and held up a white stuffed animal bear over his face. Towards the end of the poem, two other cast members joined him, holding pink stuffed animal bears, while the song "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye started playing. The assumption that the stuffed animal bears were going to "get it on" brought laughs to the audience.
The performance had a total of seven cast members, including Crystal Chasse, Tyler Wilkinson, Kaitlin Hayden, Leanne Sims and Emily Cordes.
Although Carreiro directed the show, she also starred as the wife in "Click," along with Mercier as the Russian roulette player.
The one-act "Buy One Get One Free" was performed by Crystal Chasse and Emily Cordes. It depicted one of Silverstein's more racy dialogues about two prostitutes who sell themselves with the slogan: "Buy One Get One Free." At the end of the performance a man actually showed up, ready to take the offer.
Other poetry performed included "I Won't Hatch," "Point of View," and "The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt."
During the one-act play "The Lifeboat is Sinking," actors Wilkinson and Hayden acted as a husband and wife who play a hypothetical game. The wife questioned her husband about what he would do if their lifeboat was sinking in a rainstorm. The comedic impact was achieved when the wife was happy that her husband chose to save their daughter instead of his mother, who would be thrown off of the lifeboat.
Since February, both Carreiro and Mercier helped the cast to develop their characters by asking them to think about their character's life history, or what the character was doing before the scene.
"Jenna and Troy left it really up to us to develop our characters. They sometimes gave us hints. Troy told me to use stuttering during 'K'," said Sims. During the poem "K," Sims's character stuttered each time she said a word starting with the letter K, which resulted in laughter from the audience.
"A Shel Silverstein Evening" was Carreiro's first time directing. "I learned so much from Troy, who is more experienced, and from the cast on just how to work with people and to get what you want out of a performance," said Carreiro.
A UMass alum, Mercier has directed four other shows and has been actively involved in theater since his graduation in 2006.
"I have a passion for creating new works of theater. I don't want to 'do' a show. I want to pioneer the future of theatre," said Mercier.
Sponsored by theater professor and academic advisor Milan Dragicevich, the theater department provided the use of room 204 in the Fine Arts Center, which has a stage, light stand, sound system and chairs. According to Carreiro, besides purchasing props at the dollar store, there were no other expenses for the show.
Carreiro wanted to direct her own show to give opportunities to students who did not get cast in UMass productions.
"I think a lot of talent is hidden in the department and no one gets to see how fantastic these students are," said Carreiro.
Sara Afzal can be reached at safzal@student.umass.edu.
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