intro

Ok so I just got back from LoveFest, aka the Mid-Michigan Theater Arts Festival, which is basically a 2-day festival thing where 15 schools present their short, timed plays and are then critiqued by some judges (profs from a local university). I went last year, it was fun. Went this year, even funner! I genuinely enjoyed all of the plays on some level, and hanging out with my friends and talking about them was absolutely unforgettable.

So I'm writing a review of every play I saw like I did last year, because they made me feel things! I also realize that by posting this I am vaguely doxxing myself out of the one of (probably hundreds, if not AT LEAST 1000) students that went there. Whoops. I will NOT be biased towards my school's play, however.

I want to write down some thoughts I had about each play. There were a lot of funny little things that happened that I can't really write without identifying myself, sadly. It's ALSO pretty important that this is a specific performance of the show- after putting some thought into it, I've realized that it's virtually impossible to separate my enjoyment of the show with the specific actors' performances and conscious choices made by each school in how they present the show and all that. That's the beauty of theater: each performance by each group feels like an entirely different interpretation of the show, in some way. Albeit with the same core emotional tones. So I will point out specific things I liked about the performance that may or may not be integral to the script of the play itself, but I will not name any specific actors.

also uh. nothing in this is intended to defame or hurt anyone involved. Everyone did a spectacular job.

ALSO!!!! These are either specifically written to be short one-acts or shortened versions of multi-act shows (such as musicals, long plays, etc). I WILL note if a performance is a shortened version of a longer performance.

Also also these are all in order of how I saw them.

The Price - by Don Zolidis (Woodhaven High School)

So The Price is kinda fable-y. It follows this mother's journey across treacherous climes to save her sickly infant daughter from being claimed by Death. Other characters include Night, a cold lady who demands the mother give up all of the songs she sings to her daughter, and the River, which demands the mother's eyes in exchange for a path across it. It's pretty heartrending, and the actors all did a good job of performing their specific roles (especially the River's two actors, one in a long flowing skirt and the other in a vest and pants- just horrifically cruel). In the end, the mother gives up her physical fitness and eyes in exchange for her daughter's longevity and happiness. Her mercy and sacrifice ultimately rewards her with a happy life for her and her family.

This isn't completely related, but I'm realizing how much influence Zolidis has on LoveFest- his play, The Audition, was performed by another school last year, and the same school did The Rehearsal this year(note that they're both about the meaty drama in the production process of a play- fitting for a festival full of theater students). Another play of his (Game of Tiaras, which I WILL review at the end) was also in this year's LoveFest! Wow, this guy sure does write a lot of plays.

It was a spectactular performance. I admit, I cried a bit. You could really feel the emotional notes, the anguish of a mother that loves her child and would do anything to get her back. Just overall very short, simple and strong in its presentation. Great set too (Woodhaven used this kind of curved, stairway like circular set, which I really liked looking at)

That being said, I was kind of surprised that my friend (REDACTED) didn't like it all that much. When I asked her why, she said that the ending wasn't exactly a great message: sure, the mother sacrificed everything about herself: her body, her health and spirit, in exchange for her daughter's life and is rewarded for this by her and her daughter living happily ever after, but like... what is it trying to say? Should mothers be expected to make such overwhelming, horrifying sacrifices (EYES PLUCKED OUT) for their children?

I was more willing to overlook whether the message actually worked or not because of the mystical, fable-like tone with personifications of nature and allat, but I see where she's coming from. I would argue that the sacrifices the mother makes make her more noble as it's not like.. I'd argue it's trying to say that the mother's sacrifice is a great, large thing, and that it's a metaphor for how mothers are punished for birth by their bodies (joint issues, health issues along the line).

But yeah, I guess everything coming full circle and the mother's sacrifice ultimately giving her a perfect, happy ending could be seen as overly sentimental. I personally liked the performance of the play a lot and didn't think too hard about it. A good way to open LoveFest.

also phenomenal lighting job: the contrasting pink-green lights in some parts and the constantly shifting lights were gorgeous.

Witches?! In Salem?! - Matt Cox (Adams High School)

Witches?! In Salem?! is a comedic parody of the Crucible. Basically, imagine a freeze-frame scratch Disney Channel version of the Crucible, down to moments where the play basically "pauses" and each character goes "yep, that's me. I bet you're wondering what happened.".

The special effects and the lighting were amazing (the ending twist where the characters all turn on each other was hilarious, especially the use of halloween decoration skeletons to show the Witches mauling the main cast), the character acting was all great ("She makes me feel things... AT NIGHT!")

Not that it was JUST comedic. Like any good comedy, it was full of heart, and metacommentary on why everything happened the way it did. Goody Nurse's performance, her wishing for a world with nothing but love amongst neighbors, was darkly ironic in contrast to the rest of the play. The other show-stealing performances were done by the two actors playing the Bloodkravens: a witch and a wizard, seemingly hiding in plain sight, manipulating Salem into going ham on "witchcraft" executions. The part at the end where they turn on Salem and kill everyone was unexpected and HILARIOUS. The wizard actor, especially, stole the show with his flamboyant, deep-throated acting.

It was solid! Costume design was great too, helped me distinguish all of the characters (many of which are intentionally played by the same actor)

The Most Massive Woman Wins - Madeleine George (Lincoln High School)

A play about four women coming in for liposuction surgery, all with their own tragic weight-related pasts and mental health issues, in the end learning to love themselves and each other and move on from the past and into a (hopefully better) future.

I feel bad for assuming this was going to be a freak-show comedy about fat people based on the title, honestly. Everyone jawdropped when we got the program with the multiple content warnings about rape and self harm.

It's hard to explain how I feel about this play without first explaining the structure, because it's nothing like I've ever seen. (Then again, I... do not know very much about theater despite having participated for years now. It's weird, but I've never been super interested in plays or musicals despite working in tech.) So the play takes place on a single set with a TV showing either fake commercials, relevant images, or more symbolic images (like a broken mirror when the protagonists talk about their issues, a symbolic "shattering" of their psyches). The four women in the liposuction office sit in four chairs to the left. The doctor's desk is intentionally positioned to the right of the cast, to set him apart from the cast. An emotional barrier, made physical.

The atmosphere at the beginning is genuinely unsettling. The main cast moves to the beat of a clock. Tick-Tick-Tick. The doctor (I love the bright hot pink scrubs they used for the doctor, it goes with the set really well) asks for signatures to the beat. Everything moves on the beat until it just.. doesn't. As they get ready for the procedure, the protagonists slowly crack like eggs, spilling their contents out to the audience. One was raped. Almost all of them were persistently beaten down and abused by their parents, told they'd be worth nothing because of their bodies. One talks about cutting her skin with razors, lighting herself on fire. This is contrasted with eerie "musical" bits where the characters sing, or skip rope, or re-enact particularly traumatic moments (like a protagonist trying to get a job, only to be rejected because she's 'too fat'). It's unsettling and horrifying. I don't think I heard a word out of anyone the entire play. Between dialogue pauses, you see all these kids with mascara running down their faces, crying wordlessly. Big, gasping sobs. Boys and girls burying their heads in their boyfriends' chests, weeping.

I feel like the ending would have been more impactful if the protagonists got to interact with each other a bit by talking about their experiences: but the monologue format, breaking down the characters and ultimately building them up at the end, works. The characters spill out their trauma, being poorly-stitched-over bleeding wounds using their liposuction as a poorly placed band-aid for their problems, and grow stronger from the experience. I feel like just a little more time could have been spent on the growing part though. But maybe that's just me wanting to feel more comforted by a very sad and unsettling play.

Also I flinched a lot at the parts about domestic abuse or getting shit thrown at you. For obvious reasons. Basically shut down by the end in a trauma spiral. I knew what I was getting into, but fuck. It was a really amazing performance.

Alice in Wonderland Jr - Disney (Heritage High School)

Musical adaptation of Disney's Alice in Wonderland. The music was really weird and eclectic, a lot more weirdness than I'd expect from a Disney production, and it's no surprise that Danny Elfman worked on this looking back.

Effects were cool - the caterpillar-butterfly transformation was cool, the costumes were amazing, all of the actors worked very well together. Especially the Queen's stand-out performance.

The set was a bit more sparse than I'd expect for an Alice in Wonderland performance. Some floor patterns, a few tables and chairs, but barely anything on stage. The audio was also really messed up, with some of the songs being entirely out of sync with the actors. Other than that, not much to say: fun!

Jupiter Jones: Rock Star Vampire Hunter - Eddie Zipperer (North Branch High School)

I don't think I've laughed this hard at a play, ever. Wow.

Jupiter Jones is about a thirty-something unemployed dude, Devin that's given up on life, never leaves the house and begs his wife, Jenny, to make him a sandwich. The thing is, he's basically given up on life and sits watching TV because he now has 12 million dollars- as a result of his settlement after he was injured in a workplace accident and developed permanent erectile dysfunction, which he is deeply depressed about. He decides to write a book, and mistakenly calls up someone he believes to be his favorite motivational writers-book writers, who is actually a feminist literary critic. Said feminist literary critic (Alexia Walker is the character's name, I think?) absolutely tears into Devin's writing, and the two begin an entertainign feud, with Devin trying to write better and better stories to spite Alexia. As well as the b-plot: if Devin doesn't better himself, his beloved wife Jenny will leave him. They play off each other really well, Devin being a depressed, lifeless, mildly misogynistic douche and Walker being this overly feminist figure scolding Devin for his schlocky writing and stereotypical characters. It was a really funny dynamic, with Devin excitedly showing off his writing and Walker proceeding to quickly tear him down for it.

So Jupiter Jones's set is structured as thus: the center is Devin's room, where the 'real world' takes place, and the right side of the stage is utilized when Devin reads out his draft, with his COOL ORIGINAL CHARACTER Jupiter Jones getting on stage and slaying vampires with his sick ass guitar skills. (His actor stole the show too. Absolutely amazing: dressed the part, looked the part!) As the story progresses, the at-first hilariously bad writing (with 'skanky' teenage girls and seductive seductress vampires) develops into something more rounded out and mature as Devin matures and develops as a character, eventually regaining the confidence to move forwards with his own life.

Like I said, any good comedy has heart. The story really made you root for the character by the end, and the funny bits were funny! I wish I could go see it again.

I heard some people say Dr. Walker was unjustifiedly mean to Devin, though, and I really disagree with that statement on every level. Walker may be a feminist caricature, calling Devin a chauvinist male pig and saying men are disgusting, but it WORKS in the comedic context of Devin being a really immature guy! It's obviously supposed to be a comedic dynamic, in the same way the Roadrunner isn't actually seriously hurting Wile. E. Coyote.

Again, I don't think I've laughed that hard watching a play, ever. Every bit worked. It was hilarious.

Spamalot - Eric Idle (John Glenn High School)

Spamalot is a (very, very loose) adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, minus the Black Knight. It ends with Always Look on the Bright Side of Life- an interesting choice given that's in Life of Brian, not Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Manages to be just the right amount of meta-funny.

This performance utilizes audience interaction very well, with the main cast of knights spending more time "lost in the forest" among the audience, jesting in character, than they are actually on stage.

Also the noble steed's acting was really good, even moreso that she was a fill-in for the sick lead actor TWO DAYS before Lovefest. She absolutely deserved that Best Acting award.

Not much else to say on this one. Solid! Great use of props (the killer rabbit prop was amazing), set design and everything else. Singing was great, acting was great. (Everyone in my cohort was obsessed with the 'hot' Lancelot actor which I thought was pretty funny.)

Mac Beth -Erica Schmidt (Nouvel Catholic Central High School)

Mac Beth is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth set place in war-torn, present day Ukraine. It's really no surprise why this was picked now to be performed. It's about 5 teenage girls recreating Macbeth in a theater where they are taking refuge from the war and shellings outside. There's clearly a metaphor to be drawn from the girls, seeking to reenact a show about a violent power struggle in which noone really wins, reenacting this during the midst of the Russo-Ukranian war. In the end, they are all shot to death by a Russian soldier, anyways. It doesn't really matter who wins, Macbeth or Macduff, because they're all lying dead in a heap. Their struggle, their memories, rendered meaningless. So it goes.

I haven't read or watched Macbeth prior to this, so this adaptation with additional subtext was mostly confusing to me. The Shakespearean language was difficult to interpret, and I feel like the play's subtext was mostly lost on me. In addition, this was the first play of Day 2, and my friends and I were running on about 4 hours of sleep apiece, so that didn't help either.

Acting was amazing, it's just... It was a great performance, I was just too tired to comprehend most of it. If I had watched Macbeth in advance, I'm sure I would have gotten more out of it.

The Curse of the Golden Apple - Todd Swanboro (Clintondale Young People's Theatre)

Some things to note here: Todd Swanboro is the director of Clintondale Young People's Theatre and wrote this himself. Impressive. It's basically a kids' version of the Trojan Cycle, with Aphrodite, Hera and Athena squabbling over Paris and Helen of Troy. The actors may have been (very young) children, but that didn't stop them from giving it their all! I think if there was a play with the most amount of applause, audience praise and enthusiasm, it was probably this one. Everyone loved it.

The Rehearsal - Don Zolidis (Rochester High School)

Funny thing is this school did The Audition (same author) last year, which is a hilarious "audition-gone-wrong" play in the vein of the "play-goes-wrong" meta-play genre. I guess they have a penchant for those. It's a short comedy about a high school production of Guys and Dolls, with an angry, incompetent stage manager, jealous tension between the lead actors, etc etc etc.

It was pretty funny. One thing I will note: I didn't find the jokes in this super groundbreaking, but I'm realizing how much difference an audience makes in the interpretation of a play. By laughing or booing at certain parts, the audience directly influences the interpretation of a play and how one feels about the jokes or the characters in it. Someone might think a character is annoying or their bit repetitive, but when the audience laughs, one then feels compelled to laugh along. It's fascinating as someone that isn't super knowledged on the theater community.

Was funny, had heart. Pretty good! Not much on the props side, but the costumes sold it. Every character had a distinct style of dress, with scarves and different colored shirts and pants, and it helped set them apart very well.

Also the gag where the musical poster was unfinished and the stage crew came out to 'finish' painting it was funny, too.

Mamma Mia (Bloomfield Hills High School)

Everyone knows the plot of Mamma Mia. The actors were amazing, the lighting was fantastic, constantly shifting to fit the mood. The Donna actor especially had very impressive vocal skills. Don't have much to say other than that I LOVED IT!!!! Set was great, ensemble was great.

Knock Knock - Kathyrn Funkhouser and Jason Pizarello (Marine City High School)

Knock Knock is a comedic play about 3 package deliverymen (one package deliverywoman) that go through funny situations when trying to deliver packages, from fussy ex-girlfriends to having to sing Chappell Roan's Hot To Go to ward off a ferocious chihuahua to evading the FBI trying to dispose of a garbage bag full of plutonium. Basically a short montage comedy. Solid, funny, got a lot of laughs out of me. I liked the format. It was also pretty funny that I could see exactly what was coming next as I sat angled directly to the wings (people in doctors' scrubs, pirate suits, etc...) The commentary on how Corporate treats their workers was a grounding touch to an otherwise irreverent comedy. Actors' performances were great, the effort put into the props was impressive.

The only jokes I didn't like were the ones about the guy in the hazmat suit that still lives with his mom, and the one about the guy delivering to his ex-girlfriend, who humiliates him by bragging about her amazing new boyfriend only to find out he's a total loser and gets the last laugh. The first one was just mean and also just structurally kinda eh, because the hazmat suit is already funny: a guy, in his own house, in a hazmat suit, asking for a package - do we really need a cheap jab at how he still lives with his mom? It's 2025, it's not THAT weird to live with your parents thanks to the current economic crisis. The second one just wasn't funny personally because it's unrelatable to me.

But yeah, good fun!

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - Rachel Sheinkin (Bay City Academy)

I went into this expecting it to be pretty good from what my friends told me. It blew me away.

I gotta say, the singing was phenomenal. Relistening to the recorded soundtrack right now, it doesn't hold a candle to the performance I saw yesterday. The actors put their entire heart and soul into making these characters come to life. Especially the guy that played William Barfey: he dressed the part, he even went out of his way to exaggerate the character's lisp to sound even more like the "nerd" voice. Everyone was cast perfectly, and played their role to a T. They felt so real. The costume design was phenomenal too, with everyone having greatly contrasting colors to immediately set them apart. (Schwartzy, the one with the gay dads, having bright rainbow-striped socks was hilarious). The slightly cool-colored lighting fit well with everyone's pastel, saturated colored outfits, like a candy shop sort of. I dunno how, but the costuming and makeup helped the speller characters really feel like kids and the adults like adults, even though they're probably all around the same age.

Comments about recorded soundtrack aside, the music was quirky and fun to listen to. I liked the midi-esque instruments.

I never thought I'd be so emotional about a spelling bee. The actual play itself managed to flesh out these characters so well, and when the eliminations happened the audience was truly upset. I'm still thinking about it. The soundtrack was so quirky and good, the actors and costumes were perfect, the set design was fantastic... it just blew me away! I don't usually like musicals but that was AMAZING! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It still makes me feel kinda funny when I think about it.

Our Place - Terry Gabbard (Stoney Creek High School)

I've never heard that many people cry at once. The entire theater was bawling their eyes out. Looking left and right, all of my friends were wet-eyed. Actors with mascara running down their eyes. Hiccups and sobs. I'm not exaggerating when I say the entire theater, like a thousand people, myself included, was sobbing.

Lighting used this LED water filter effect, and it worked beautifully. The audio was some Hozier songs, which helped get the waterworks going when all the death and loss and grief and sadness and angst happened. Actor makeup was great. Set design for the dock was great too.

The play revolves around a dock where people have huge moments in their lives, separated by time but at the same location. The first is a guy with a date at the dock, trying to convince her that this is 'their place' (it was actually his and his ex-girlfriend's, who shows up halfway through to interrupt, very funny.)The second is a daughter bringing her alzheimers-addled father to the dock, desperately hoping he'll come back somehow. The third is a family outing, the fourth is a couple slowly growing apart and separating. They can't relate to each other anymore, and they're desperately trying to hold it togehter.

The fifth is about Stanley and his younger sister. Stanley hates his home life and wants an escape, and spends all of his time sitting at the dock. His sister just wants to comfort him and hang out with him. As she reaches out to play with him, she trips over the edge of the dock and drowns. Stanley, still with his noise-cancelling headphones on, doesn't hear a single thing until it's too late.

The actor's heaving sobs, wails and desperate pleas for his sister to come back, as well as occasionally yelling for the audience to help. I don't really have a verb to describe how real it was. I don't. There's no way I can capture it in a few words. It was real in a way i just. I can't. He screamed, and pled, and cried. And so did the audience. In between his quavering breaths, the entire theater's sobs could be heard.

Do I need to add an addendum that it was great? That everyone's performance was great? I don't think I do.

Silent Sky - Laura Gunderson (Bay City Central High School)

Silent Sky is about astronomer Henrietta Levitt dealing with sexism and family issues in the early 1900s to being accepted into Harvard and ultimately leading to the invention of light-years as a unit of measurement of space.

Great performance from everyone involved, great costumes. I will admit, again, I was kinda falling asleep during this part as it was pretty late. After all, LoveFest expects one to watch 15 plays, 6 in one day and 9 in the next. It's pretty exhausting. Still, I tried my best to pay attention and it was pretty cool.

Also when they needed a "map of the stars" they used a broken lighting gel. Something the audience probably wouldn't recognize, but me and my tech friends immediately did. That was funny. The balance between drama, wonder and philosophy, and humor was good.

Game Of Tiaras - Don Zolidis (Garber High School)

So. This also needs more context before I even explain what this is about. I heard from (REDACTED TECHNICIAN) that their school's earlier production of this show was disastrous, involving actual swords, little choreography, and two actors being cut in the face and requiring stitches, and the entire stage crew nearly being fired. (REDACTED SCHOOL 2 had their entire sound and lighting crew quit due to terrible working conditions, which is... amazing that they still managed to pull off their current production despite it all. Hell other schools had one person doing all of lights and sound AND stage managing AND directing. How????)

And having seen the script as well, I was not impressed with the quality of writing, with corny gags about "boobies" and selfies.

But I digress. This is a shortened version of Don Zolidis's Game of Tiaras, a two-hour, multi-act play. It's basically Game Of Thrones with Disney Princesses, and many gags are to be had about "non-copyrighted" parody use of Disney characters and animated properties.

The actual play

I feel I need to separate my feelings about the actual play's writing itself from the performance, which is weird because that's not really possible with the live format of a play, but I feel I have to because the lines actually being said compared to the performances.. oh boy.

First of all, I'm surprised that the not-shortened version is TWO HOURS. The shortened, hour-long version (the last performance gets to be longer as it's by the host school) felt pretty decently paced but still a tad sluggish and I cannot possibly imagine it being any longer or having any tedious B-plots.

Second of all, dare I say it, the writing is bafflingly bad. The play only starts being funny about 20 minutes in when the characters STOP TALKING. Imagine putting every millenial-core, reddit-esque, almost bordering on self-gratifying meta-but-not-actually-meta joke about WHAT IF THIS CUTE THING WAS MESSED UP FOR SHOCK EFFECT or this CUTE WOMAN was actually EVIL!!!!

Like, I understand that this play is essentially "imagine if Cinderella looked cute, but was actually violent and sexually deviant". The dialogue doesn't need to have her saying "you know I'm actually messed up? I killed someone. VIOLENTLY. " Every two seconds. It doesn't need to over-explain every joke. It doesn't need 5 million gags about selfies. It only really takes off once the characters stop talking and start doing more physical comedy. It's surface-level edgy.

the performances

That being said, an unfunny line, if delivered well, is still very funny. While the Cinderella character was saddled with a lot of the "yknow I'm evil right? Because (overexplaining the joke)" lines, she still sold the "sweet but psycho" archetype well with her spectacular acting.

All of the characters had excellent performances. The audience was so engaged and receptive throughout the whole thing. I wish I could go over them one by one, but once the play shifted from verbal comedy to more physical/situational comedy about tropes, that's when it really started to pick up.

My personal favorite bit was the Stage Crew character, who tried out but ended up getting put into crew in the play's story. She starts off, timidly throwing red ribbons and thread onto whatever new head rolls, but then she quickly becomes a fan favorite. Like when she showed up in a scene where Princess Belle was about to be killed, and everyone expected the worst - only for Belle to be saved, and her (I do not know the name of the character, so I will just call her Blood Cannon Girl) walking off in a huff. She becomes one of the funniest parts of the show, grabbing play arrows midair and thrusting them into the actors' chests, going from red ribbon, red mop, red yarn to dashing onstage in a multipocket kevlar vest, spraying actors in canisters of red silly string and, after a momentary defeat and seeming death, rising to spray enemies in red confetti party popper, "killing" them. The audience goes hog wild. (The actor later gets on stage to play saxophone and sing for the customary jazz concert at the end, too, which is a really impressive range of skills). And not once does she make a joke about selfies or boobs or a random pop culture thing.

Like the closing performance of last year, I Hate Shakespeare, Game of Tiaras is a parody play. It starts off slow, but thanks to Gerber High School's spectacular actors, set designers, costumers, lighting people, sound effects, everyone, it managed to truly whip the audience into a frenzy and end on a genuinely funny note.

That's all, folks!

These writings are for my purposes of remembering. I loved Lovefest and I'm sad that I probably won't get to participate in another one, but I'll never forget the memories I made during the two days it went on.

Obligatory note: nothing written here is intended to defame or mock anyone involved. It's written with love and I wholeheartedly enjoyed every performance.