Allen Community College students have grown accustomed to entertaining scores of audiences each year through the college’s drama program.
This week, a group of actors show they’re quite skilled at direction, too.
The latest round of Allen’s Student-Directed One-Acts runs tonight through Saturday at the ACC Theatre.
Five fast-paced skits — all independent of each other — will leave the audience amused and entertained.
MIGUEL ROBERTS’ presentation of “Guys,” a brief comedic skit featuring Tim Roloff and Chandler Betts, begins the evening. Roloff and Betts are a pair of oafsome, lonesome guys plotting ways to meet women in a McDonald’s restaurant.
Their back-and-forth banter is occasionally boorish, groan-worthy and misogynistic — and funny.
Roloff shines as he struggles to muster a ploy to strike up a conversation with a nearby gal, while Betts is a hoot as his all-too-cynical friend.
THE NEXT one-act — “Heads,” directed by Rachel Mentzer — carries a similar theme, but from a female perspective.
Here, Emily Pierce is Rose, a college student who finds a lost wallet in a dormitory parking lot. She excitedly shows off her find to roommates Angel Spencer and Callaway Patterson, both of whom are struggling financially.
Rose’s plan isn’t to keep the wallet. Rather, she encourages either of her roommates to return the wallet to its owner, son of a billionaire, with the hopes of making a new boyfriend with deep pockets.
There are extenuating circumstances. Patterson is on the verge of moving out of the dorm because she can no longer afford college. And Spencer is engaged.
Pierce is brilliant as she presents her proposal. Patterson and Spencer, too, sparkle as her cynical roommates.
THE SETTING takes a turn for the outrageous with Jason Davis’ presentation of “Family 2.0.”
Nicholas Watson is a husband tired of his current life.
So he seeks a new wife and family who live down the street.
That he hasn’t told his idea to his “new” family until he walks in the door matters little. All it takes, he figures, is some flowers and promises to keep a clean house to woo his “new” wife, the brilliant Tori Whalen. Likewise, a little spending cash and a game of catch should suffice to endear himself to his new children, the equally charming and enthusiastic Aaron Huskey and Ashley Halloran.
