The organization’s spring season shows include four plays and a musical.
Lost Flamingo Company, a student-run theater company, brings four plays and one musical to Ohio University stages for its spring season.
No Exit, a one-act play by Jean-Paul Sartre, will explore three characters who have been placed in hell. The short drama, which will be performed March 13, includes elements of dark comedy, Sarah Pinter, a junior studying mathematics and statistical environmental science and the show’s director, said.
A barren room with few set pieces represents hell, leaving the audience to focus on the acting and the actors, with an unusual venue to showcase their abilities.
“(The play is) stripping the characters down to the clothes on their backs,” Pinter said. “(There is) nothing left but you and your soul.”
Pinter will soon determine whether to set the play in its original time period or modern day. She said more modern costuming would make it easier for the audience to relate with the characters.
Another production, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, is a mystery in which the characters are all murderers who are invited to a dinner party and face retribution from one of their own. The play will be performed in Baker Center on March 19 at 8 p.m. and March 20 at 2 p.m.
Sarah Wagner, a sophomore studying journalism, will direct.
Because the play takes place in 1940s England, Wagner said costuming and set design will be challenging.
“It’s always fun to do a time period show,” she said.
Christie included an extensive set design in the script, but Wagner said without a Broadway-sized budget, the design is ambitious.
“If we had all the furniture she wanted, our set would be wall to wall furniture,” she said.
Elicia Gibson, a senior studying journalism and former Post reporter, makes her directorial debut with Rebecca, a play by Daphne Du Maurier that follows a beautiful new wife marrying into an extravagant lifestyle. It will be performed in Baker Center Theatre on April 16 and 17.
Because the play is constructed in three acts, Gibson said it will require strong storytelling.
However, she said she was pleased to see the cast’s abilities in auditions.
“I was really blown away in callbacks with how my cast portrayed their characters,” she said.
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25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn is about six children competing in a local spelling bee in hopes of making it to the national contest. The audience even has a chance to participate. The performance is March 26 and 27.
“Musicals offer a totally different experience,” Pinter said.
The director, Tess Plona, will have to worry not only about the individuals’ acting and singing, but also their harmonies and accompaniment.
Schuyler Fastenau, a senior studying screenwriting and producing and journalism, is directing The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney, which will be performed in Glidden Recital Hall on April 23 and 24 at 2 p.m.
The play is unusual in that each of the eight actors will portray anywhere between five to 10 different characters, making character development essential in the rehearsal process. To account for that, Fastenau plans to split the new and veteran actors into separate groups, with himself helping the inexperienced and the experienced helping each other.
“It can be a challenge, but the thing that is nice about this show is that the writer’s note specifically says it is not supposed to be about intricate costumes, intricate props, intricate lighting — anything like that,” Fastenau said. “He was kind of wanting it … to be more about the writing itself and the characters.”
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