This weekend, the California Department of Theater and Dance performed a unique compilation of acts from a variety of plays.  The One Acts were performed by Cal U students on Thursday, October 8th through Saturday, October 11.  Students paid $.50 admission to feel a deep array of emotions, empowerment, sadness, sympathy, joy, and empathy.

    Angel Funk, a freshman at Cal U, was glad to call the amazing performance her first experience with the theater and Dance Department.  Accompanied by four of her friends, she went to Thursday night’s 8:00 show.  Of the numerous acts, Angel finds her favorite to be the third, an act from a play called The Dutchman.  This performance, written by Amiri Baraka and published in 1964, epitomizes racism during the civil rights movement.  The story’s two main characters are an African American man and a white woman who ride the subway together.  An attitude of flirtation quickly turns to frustration as the woman, Lula, is unsuccessful in wooing Clay, the man.  In anger, she mocks African American culture, pretends to dance to rhythm and blues, and criticizes Clay’s grammatically correct speech.  During what Angel describes as the most intense moment of the performance, Clay smacks Lula across the face and throws her onto the ground.  However, Lula gets the last word by shooting Clay dead and coolly pushing his body off the train.  Angel believes that this selection “resonates with what’s going on in the world as far as racism is concerned.”

    Societal issues demonstrated throughout the performance were not limited to racism.  Elements of greed and selfishness took the stage with the very first act.  Students played a couple on their wedding day, confessing their sins to one another.  While the man and wife pose for pictures and dance in the ballroom, the man tells his wife that he only married her for her beauty.  The woman retorts by her confession: his money was her deciding factor.  Although, unlike The Dutchman, this play does not speak of ills in society as a whole, viewers were struck with a sense of reflection on their own selfishness.  It is odd to think of greed as being so commonplace as to be openly admitted while simultaneously enjoying one’s own wedding ceremony.

    The One Acts, like many other performances by the Cal U Department, left viewers in awe not only of the stunning performers but also of the ideas conveyed by the director and by the authors of the scripts.  Society’s effects of the individual were displayed when Clay’s patience was worn thin by Lula’s constant irritations.  On the other hand, the first act of the play caused viewers to examine themselves in a way that is not always comfortable.  Seeing the actors flawlessly portray such a vain man and woman left the audience with a sense of emptiness, struggling to fill the void in their own lives.  After a whirlwind of experiences, students like Angel Funk considered the 2015 One Acts a half-dollar well spent.