Bridgewater College to present Will Eno play this week | Arts And Entertainment

Bridgewater College’s February theater production of “Oh, The Humanity (and other good intentions)” might just warm your heart — or at least allow you to see your fellow humans in new and different ways. 

The show by American playwright Will Eno is meant to make you both laugh and think. 

Eno rose to prominence on the New York theater scene with his one-person play “Thom Pain (based on nothing)” in 2004. Charles Isherwood, writing in The New York Times in 2005 about that play, called it “stand-up existentialism” that was “astonishing in its impact.” 

This play, consisting of five short plays featuring one to three actors each, premiered off-Broadway in 2007. 

One of the actors in this play is freshman Digital Media Arts and Music double major Zander Hall from Chantilly, who is appearing on the Bridgewater College stage for the first time. 

The short play that she stars in is called “The Bully Composition.” In that play, Hall acts out a scene with junior strategic communications major Laine Anthony, a frequent performer on the Bridgewater College stage, where the two, as assistant and photographer, try to recreate a war photo. 

One thing that Anthony likes about the show is that “I’ve been able to craft a character almost from scratch, completely.” To do so, Anthony said she has drawn inspiration from some eccentric creative people whom she has known in real life. 

The minimalistically staged plays should appeal “to those who like to question the deeper meaning of things,” Hall said. 

While the sets are bare bones, the lighting is more complicated, said Wright Condrey, a sophomore from Powhatan, the show’s stage manager. 

“The different shows have different light setups,” he said. And some of the short plays used colored lights, while others didn’t. 

Condrey said he feels all the plays fit together. 

“All of them somewhat have the idea of the real truth of life, I feel like,” he said. 

Malachi Benjamin, a junior theater major from Maryland who plans to be an actor when he graduates, is one of two actors who star in a short play that only features one character. (The other is Rayllah Mincey, a freshman psychology major from Warrenton, who plays an airline spokeswoman trying but failing to make the best of a difficult situation.)  

“This play is actually the most different play I’ve ever done,” Benjamin said. 

Another short play, “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rain,” features two people on stage at once, speaking to cameras for an online dating site.

“While they’re both on stage, they never acknowledge each other, they never look at each other,” said Acacia Scott, a junior theater major from Fredericksburg, who is one of the show’s student assistant directors. “The parallels of [their] worlds are very interesting.” 

Brian Kennedy, a junior criminology major from Chesapeake, said that playing one of the two characters in “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rain” was challenging. 

“It’s more than just reciting words,” he said. “You also have to put yourself in the body of the character.” 

His co-star in “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rain,” Kayla Stanley, a junior communications major from Amherst, said she has been in theater her whole life. She calls the short play that she’s in “vulnerable” and “funny.” 

“It’s just two people that kinda hate themselves trying to sell themselves for love,” she said. 

She said she enjoys the play’s deadpan humor. 

“The characters feel like they’re real,” she said. 

Stanley said that she has gotten to practice many skills, including public speaking and organization, by being involved in theater. 

“I don’t know what I want to do with my future, but I know the skills I got through theater will definitely help me,” she said. 

For her, the show’s message is, “Everyone is more than what you see on the surface, but that’s what brings us all together, our humanity.” 

“Oh, The Humanity (and other good intentions)” will run nightly at 7 p.m. at Bridgewater College’s Cole Hall from Wednesday to Saturday. 

Admission to the play is free for Bridgewater College staff, students, and faculty; $10 for community members; and $8 for senior citizens age 65 and older and non-Bridgewater College students. Tickets can be purchased at the door with cash or check 30 minutes before the play begins. The play is recommended for a mature audience.