The Mohawk Valley Community College Drama Club will present a production of four very different one-act comedic plays at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Oct. 19 and 20, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, in Schafer Theater, Francis A. Wilcox Hall, at the College’s Utica Campus. Admission is $10 general, $5 for MVCC employees, and free for MVCC students. For ticket information, visit www.mvcc.edu/tickets.
The plays — “Graceland” and “Asleep on the Wind” by Ellen Byron, “Hubie’s Best Friend” by Jules Tasca, and “The Narrenschneiden (or The Fool-Ectomy)” by Hans Sachs — are directed by MVCC Assistant Professor Tom Schink and produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service Inc. (“Graceland” and “Asleep on the Wind”) and Dramatic Publishing (“The Narrenschneiden” and “Hubie’s Best Friend”).
'Graceland' and 'Asleep on the Wind'
The funny and ultimately touching “Graceland” deals with the rivalry of Bev and Rootie, two Elvis Presley fans determined to be the first to enter their fallen idol’s lavish estate. The two are camped out before the gates three days before the estate is to be opened to the public. Bev is a middle-aged woman with a brassy down-home style. Rootie is young and shy and somewhat intimidated by Bev. Wary at first, the two soon progress from dispute to shared confidences and growing compassion. Created as a companion piece for “Graceland,” the lyrical, humorous play “Asleep on the Wind” focuses on events preceding those in “Graceland,” with the teenaged Rootie and her favorite older brother Beau.
'Hubie's Best Friend'
“Hubie’s Best Friend” tells the story of two college roommates — Hubie, the hardworking intellectual college student, and Alvin, the girl-chasing jock. It seems to Hubie that Alvin always steals his girlfriends, so Hubie creates a fictitious girlfriend, Beatrice, in hopes Alvin will fall in love with the tall tales Hubie makes up about her.
'The Narrenschneiden (or The Fool-Ectomy)'
“The Narrenschneiden (or The Fool-Ectomy)” is based on the play written by Hans Sachs, the Meistersinger of Nuremberg, in 1557, and this translation by I.E. Clark sticks closely to the original. A doctor is called to a tavern to handle an emergency illness. He realizes he must operate immediately and lays the horribly bloated patient on the counter and cuts open his stomach in front of everybody. He removes an assortment of oddities — the “Narren” (follies) that made the man sick, but which have made audiences laugh for 400 years. “Narrenschneiden” is a German word meaning “the surgical removal of the follies that cause a man to make a fool of himself.”
About the MVCC Theater Program
MVCC’s Liberal Arts & Sciences: Theater AA degree program provides a strong foundation in liberal arts while preparing students to transfer into a bachelor’s degree program in drama (literature) or theater (acting or technical). The Drama Club presents stage productions and demonstrates new and classical techniques in interpreting various dramatic works through acting, set/costume work and sound/lighting production.