When my classmates and I took our seats for a performance of ten-minute plays in L1 on Thursday afternoon, I was a bit skeptical about whether the plays would be able to captivate the audience in ten minutes. Let’s be honest, it is challenging to connect with an audience during a full-length play, which makes it even more difficult in a short amount of time. I was pleasantly surprised.

The lights went down, leaving a park bench, some plastic blue school chairs, a piano, and some laundry baskets. Oh, and let’s not forget the main character, Dr. Horrible (Isaac Greenawalt) of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the first of the three plays performed.

With witty opening lines, and wise jokes, Dr. Horrible captured the audience’s attention by expressing his love for a girl. So of course it only makes sense for him to break out into song about, well, “Laundry”. Apparently, Dr. Horrible has a crush on a girl named Penny (Julia Terranova) whom he met at the Laundromat.

Throw in some singing cowboys with mustaches (David Dines and Ally Cohen) and the arch nemesis, Captain Hammer (Alex Dulude), and you’ve got a pretty solid plot, right?

Well, I would have to disagree there. Although there are many interesting events happening in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, not a lot was explained. From my understanding, this play was adapted from a web series that consisted of a couple of acts. When condensed into what should have been a 10-minute play (but ended up being close to a half an hour), it was difficult to fit in every important plot point that happened in the original.

The downfall to the play was that there were many technical difficulties and the musical portions were not as polished as they could have been. It was clear that the actors were not well rehearsed and not very familiar with the tunes of their songs.

Despite the plot, there was one thing that was brilliantly done: the acting. Greenawalt did an amazing rendition as Dr. Horrible with his dry sense of humor and nervous habits, and the supporting cast was just as hilarious. The acting and humor made the play and kept the audience’s attention throughout. While I do commend the writers on the attempt at the comedic, musical blend, I hope that next time, it will be better all around.

The next play that followed was Rainy Afternoon, directed by Ally Cohen. It was a story about childhood and playing house with friends. The play started by introducing two girls, Wilma (Hannah Smith), the bossy one, and Billie Mae (Meg Kuhn), agreeable and passive one.

Wilma tells Billie Mae that in order to be a successful parent to their toy dolls, they have to “spank [them] and make [them] behave.” In walks their friend Vic (Aidan Falvey), whom the girls pressure to play house with them. The plot unravels from there as Billie Mae is forced to play the ‘baby and the ‘maid’ while Wilma plays the ‘mom’. Although the play started out light-hearted, it ends on a somber note with Billie Mae screaming, “I hate you!” after Wilma and Vic exclude her from their games.

Overall, it was a really adorable play that was approximately ten minutes. It completely reminded me of my own childhood and had that nice reminiscent tone to it. It was very simple in the props department as well of movements of the characters, but it suited the play very well. The acting was believable and in the end, it was a very sweet and entertaining play.

The last play that was performed was The Profession, directed by Ari Goldberg and starring Ryan Budnick and Kayla Rice. This had to be my favorite play of the three. An introduction before the performance began talked about how this play was set in a world where people complete weird tasks just for fun.

The scene starts out with Eugene (Budnick) running onto the stage, looking distraught. He rummages around a small table set and couch, and from offstage the audience can hear Eugene’s wife, Ibid (Rice), asking how his day at school was.

The plot goes from there with Ibid pestering Eugene to no end about how his day went, and Eugene trying to avoid her. It advances to a point where Eugene suggests running away from their society, while Ibid will not hear of it. This situation reminded me of Fahrenheit 451,with the disillusioned male character and the female character who doesn’t believe a word that her husband says.

Unfortunately for the audience, the play was cut short by the bell, and it was sad to leave without seeing how the play finished. With its lively back and forth banter and interesting plot, I would have enjoyed knowing what was to become of the couple. Despite the abrupt ending, this piece was the answer to the question that had been stirring in my head all along. It had completely captured my attention and it truthfully was only five minutes long.

The three plays that were reviewed here are only three out of ten. The rest are being performed on Friday night, February 4th, 2011 so please go out and show your support for the cast and crew!

Miss an event from Winter Week 2011? WSPN’s got it covered.