Students step into director’s role for Saint Martin’s theatre production

SMU performance to feature four student-directed one-act plays

March 2, 2008

Lacey, Washington — Three Saint Martin’s University students will make their directorial debut in the SMU Theatre Department’s latest production — an evening of one-act plays. Shows are 7:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, April 2–5 at the State Theater, 202 4th Ave. E, in downtown Olympia. No advance ticket sales; tickets will be sold at the door on the evening of each performance, $10 general admission and $6 for students, seniors and military. The April 3 performance is pay-what-you-will.

Each performance features four one-act plays. Saint Martin’s junior Clare Lopez directs two plays, Eye to Eye by Christopher Graybill and After You by Steven Dietz. In Eye to Eye, a cynical woman and a macho man battle it out over a staring contest to determine who pays the check. In After You, a man and woman resort to old promises to create excuses to see one another. Christopher Durang’s The Actor’s Nightmare, directed by senior Jesse Gold, tells the story of George, an accountant who somehow finds himself on stage with no memory of ever having attended a rehearsal. In Kent Broadhurst’s comedy, The Eye of the Beholder, directed by junior Matt Pritchard, two painters and a model debate the question “What is art?” until they realize the only way to reach consensus is to collaborate.

“Saint Martin’s audiences will be familiar with these students’ stage work — all three are accomplished actors,” says David Hlavsa, professor of theatre at Saint Martin’s University. “This is their chance to apply what they’ve learned, working from the other side of the footlights.”

Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, Catholic, coeducational university located on a 320-acre wooded campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 21 majors and six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250 students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main campus, and 650 more to its five extension campuses located at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Olympic College, Centralia College and Tacoma Community College.

For additional information:

David Hlavsa
Professor, Department of Theatre Arts
360-438-4345
dhlavsa@stmartin.edu