Snip-ITS: Scenes from Creative Minds

Florence and the Machine and Lady Gaga were among the songs the audience in the Valenzuela Theater sang along to on September 9 as they sat in eager anticipation of the beginning of this year’s fall Snip-ITS. Everyone knew the “dog days were over” when the music faded, the lights dimmed and the ITS officers took the stage to introduce the show.

Snip-ITS, the annual fall production by the International Thespian Society (ITS), features an array of individual scenes, much like short stories or vignettes acted on stage. This year, the ITS coordinators decided to use original scenes written by Pres students in conjunction with scenes selected by the ITS officers. Some of the scenes were written and subsequently directed by seniors Emily Griffith and Grace Hoffman and juniors Kate Pashby and Isabelle Polito.

Considering that every scene was its own story, unlike the usual play or musical, the flow of the show was a fresh, easy to digest way to start the fall season. True love, death and acceptance were all played with depth and humor, but did so quickly, creating rapid-fire tableau of wide emotional range that any audience member could appreciate.

Before every scene a song was played that foreshadowed the scenes. Each set was meticulously designed to give diversity to the different stories, from colorful blocks and benches to a solemn, dimly lit bare stage. It was clear to the audience that each scene stood out on thought provoking drama.

The show began with “Bus Stop,” written and directed by Emily Griffith. With an excitable pregnant woman arriving at a bus stop trying to relate to this generation’s typical teenage girl, the scene accurately portrayed the hilarity that is a mother attempting to be ‘hip’ and relate to a younger generation with spastic head banging to the apparent god of this generation’s music industry — ‘The Biebs.’

Immediately after, the tone of the stage evolved into a philosophical drama by Kate Pashby entitled “The Crossroads.” The heavy drama was set on the basis of a newly deceased woman meeting the personification of death as it gives her a difficult choice. Would this wife and mother go back to painful life to learn the fate of her beloved son or journey into a familiar afterlife modeled after her childhood? The actresses, senior Mandy Heiser and junior Erin Hughes, drove the gravity of the situation home, highlighting the deep philosophical lines with skillful technique.

A few comedic highlights of the show were featured in the scenes “Artistic Inspiration” and “Camp Freaks.” Both featured engaging rants between eccentric duos of unique and clearly defined characters. Senior Katcy Stephan kept the crowd breathless with hysteria as she performed her almost dual personality disorder delivery of her Twilight-esque manly man and deliriously enamored teenage girl. In “Camp Freaks,” seniors Elizabeth Bernal and Kelsey Klosterman stole the show with their characters of a girl with self proclaimed ‘swag’ and a girl with cat ears who frowns upon people with a hiss if they dare claim to be a dog person.

All of the actresses featured in the scenes were impeccably in character, whether they were an eerily satisfied woman who had just burned her entire house down with her kids and dog inside, a woman who shot her husband and merely cared about how hungry she was after, or were a part of the group of adorable and lovable daycare children and the unibrowed, aptly named ‘Ms. Buttkiss’. The use of ‘fourth wall’ and vocal tone were among the acting techniques expertly employed in the dramas and comedies that kept the audience engaged and invested.

Overall, Snip-ITS was a brilliant success and the audience was able to walk away with smiles on their faces and new perspectives to reflect on. Don’t worry if you missed out on this curtain call; ITS will be performing Musical Snip-ITS in February 2012 and the benefit Concert for Love on October 6.

Have a Good Read This Christmas Eve

This novel is a bit on the lengthy side, but it takes no time at all to plow through. It’s easy to get into, and will have you hooked by the first couple of pages. The gripping storyline includes love, betrayal, death, and, best of all, drama!

Not much for the Middle-Aged melodramas? Not to worry. Perhaps a more adventurous love story would strike your fancy. Give Annette Curtis Klause’s Blood and Chocolate a try. This is basically the exact opposite of Twilight, only strikingly similar at the same time. Instead of a male vampire falling in love with a useless mortal, Blood and Chocolate tells the story of a mysterious young werewolf who falls in love with a human boy intended to be her lunch. The two fall madly in love and face many challenges as their two worlds collide in an epic adventure. But take caution in opening up this work in the midst of finals week: you simply will not be able to put it down!

If you’d rather depart from the romance genre altogether, then Adriana Trigiani’s newest coming of age novel Viola will deliver the perfect dose of teenage angst, while at the same providing encouraging insights into the world of friendship and growing up. Shipped away from her beloved hometown of Brooklyn to a glum boarding school in the outskirts of an Indiana town, Viola is faced with a whole new world that she feels completely ill-equipped to handle. A talented film-maker, she gradually learns to stop seeing and living life through her screen and open herself up to the new experiences and friendships that await her.

If you find yourself in the mood for some classical delight, but cannot face diving into something quite as hefty as War and Peace, go for The Princess Bride. If you have seen the movie, then you know how entertaining the plot twists and character developments are. And Christmastime is always a little more enjoyable with a bit of Buttercup romance in the air. Another, perhaps heavier, romance is the newly-turned-motion-picture The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This novel could certainly be considered more of a drama than William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, as it deals with the lessons of love and loss that a young couple encounters during their somewhat fated journey. A box of tissues might be a good idea if you pick this one up.

For more of a science fiction thriller, give Inkheart a go. The popular first installment of the planned Inkworld Trilogy, takes the reader through the many adventures of twelve-year-old Meggie Folchart, whose father possesses a special power of turning stories he reads aloud into real life. Lucky Meggie gets to travel to exotic places she reads about in books, such as Italy and many parts of Europe. If you ever were a fan of the animated film The Page Master as a little kid, this is the book for you. Another novel with a similar feel, C.S. Lewis’s famous children’s adventure tale The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, takes the reader through the closet of four young orphans, and into a magical world caught in eternal winter. It becomes the mission of this brave lot to bring the world of Narnia back to its original enchanting existence.

Some historical fiction might be the way to go if you don’t feel up to the time travelling and mythical creatures. Ann Rinaldi’s Time Enough for Drums is the story of 13-year-old Jemima Emerson living in Revolutionary War America. She finds herself torn between just about every member of her family, each of whom seems to be supporting a different war party: Patriots, Whigs, British officer, militiaman, and Continental Army soldier. This is a good read for those suffering the typical holiday season family squabbles that are typical of the holiday season.

Several decades after Jemima, comes Old Derry, the chubby old man in Edward Lear’s A Book of Nonsense. This charming collection of children’s tales is actually a compilation of limerick’s published sequentially in early nineteenth century England. Do not let the “children’s tales” turn you away, because each of Lear’s snappy poems is packed with clever twists and allusions that a wide range of age groups can appreciate.

So, now that you have a good list of choices for some great holiday reads, hit up your local bookstore – or Christmas wish list – and wipe your brain clean of any finals residue. Happy holidays!