University Students Create "Stories of Love" in New Works Festival

Love filled the air throughout the Frederick Loewe Theatre at University of Redlands this past weekend as a handful of talented students put on various plays in their “Stories of Love,” featuring in the New Works Festival. Friday night, two shows on Saturday, and the last show on Sunday afternoon, the creative performances were as successful as the last. The four plays, directed by Ashley Sparks and co-directed by Alyssa Reamy, were "Stalled" by Jessica Ackerson, "First Time" by Lilian Mitrev, "Semicolons" by Amanda Speidel with musical lyrics by Julia Smith and Alyssa Reamy, and "The House" by Mariah Kennedy. According to Assistant Director Alyssa Reamy, the University hosts this particular show every two years. As opposed to previous years, this one had fewer performances total. However, each act went a little more into depth and were a bit longer, at about 20 minutes each. There were four different performances that were each written and created by University of Redlands students in the play-writing class during the spring semester offered at the university. Reamy explained, "The focus this year was a bit more toward the actual writing of the play." Each of the four plays were originally about thirty minutes long. However, the challenging part of this year's event was that the students and directors were still editing and adding to the script about a week before the play. "There was even some improv that made it into the final play," she shared while explaining that everyone contributed to the plot. "It was very collaborative." This festival isn’t only to showcase the students’ talent, but it was also in part with the Homecoming and Parents’ weekend. "The entire weekend went really well. It definitely improved over time," Reamy added. The talented cast of students included: Lise Laerdal Bryn asAlice in "First Time," Arianne Irucuta as Lily in "The House," Kevin Mitchell as James in "First Time," Sawyer Patterson as Adam in "The House," Esat Rexhepi as Dad and Jack in "Stalled," Sarah Smallman as Sharlene in "Stalled," Julia Surace Smith as Emma in "Semicolons," and Allison Torrance as Harper in "Stalled".