Drama’s Tracks impresses in black box performance
NC’s Drama department performed Tracks in a Black Box play.
December 14, 2015
Crammed into the black box theater, NC’s Standing Ovation Drama Club presented Tracks by Peter Tarsi as their second performance of the season on December 10 and 11.
The One Act play follows the story of a group of people as they reflect on their lives in a dirty subway station. The show employed ten actors and a handful of technical crewmembers, portraying a piece of art with a twisted moral dilemma.
From left to right, a businesswoman (Hope Kutsche, freshman), a lawyer (Alexia Howell, senior), a businessman (Jordan Hicks, sophomore), a professor (Connor Crafton, junior), and a nun (Kelly Vislocky, senior) meet a subway station. Rather than sounding like a mildly offensive joke, Tracks by Peter Tarsi turns out to be a thought-provoking piece of art.
Tracks starts off with a motley crew of characters accumulating in an old subway station, including a businessman (Jordan Hicks, sophomore), a businesswoman (Hope Kutsche, freshman), a high school boy (Jordan Warren, junior), and more. Each character enters worried about their predicament, interrogating a homeless girl (Darby Franks, senior) and old man (Emmett Schindler, junior) already at the station. As more people arrive, each character realizes a dark secret: they all recently died, and the subway train heads either to heaven or hell. They try to decide the direction of the train based on evidence from their morally ambiguous lives. When a new arrival enters the station, the group must make a choice and finally figures out the haunting truth behind the subway.
Because of the quick turnaround required to present Tracks before the upcoming musical auditions, cast members had a limited amount of time to rehearse for the show.
“It was a little different because we were on a much tighter deadline than most shows,” Franks said. “We essentially had a month to prepare where we normally have two or more. but it also felt more relaxed because we knew we would be running the show for a smaller crowd, so there was less pressure to be perfect with it. You get to know your cast members a lot better on a small show.”
NC’s production of Tracks reflected on life and self-worth, providing its spectators with food for thought to accompany them home.
Kustche explained, “A friend of mine said it was religiously thought-provoking. It was amazing to pull off this play, and I loved seeing our hard work pay off at the performances.”
