The St. Thomas Theater Club ushered in the return of live stage productions at the university with its performance of “Entropy or Something,” a one-act play performed at Baumgaertner Auditorium in the Brady Educational Center on Saturday.
The play, directed by sophomore Abby Elfner and written by Macalester College junior Emery Todd, tells the story of an overworked high school theater club president, Diana, played by first-year Ashley Donley, who is forced to confront her unhealthy tendencies after forming an unlikely connection with a begrudging new member, Wren, played by sophomore Abby Wagner.
The one-night-only production was St. Thomas’ first-ever spring play, which Elfner — who is also performance director of the Theater Club — said is another step in the club’s mission to bring back live theater offerings for Tommies since the university eliminated its joint Department of Theater with St. Catherine University in 2008.
“There has been an initiative, both by the new dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dean Tolman, and several professors, faculty, students, that just really have a yearning to be on stage, to be performing and to put on shows like this that maybe aren’t just musical ensemble shows but really, like, storytelling,” Elfner said.
Elfner first learned of “Entropy or Something” during a playwright’s festival at Macalester last spring, during which she took part in the festival’s read-through of the play. She then reached out to Todd earlier this semester, who gave their blessing to put on the play.
“It really stood out to me at the beginning because I really related to Diana — who was DeMarcus in the original script — and just her work ethic and everything like that really stood out to me in a unique way when I first read it,” Elfner said.
Todd said that the play came about as an offshoot of a story they’d been writing since middle school, which they reworked into a full production for a sophomore-year playwriting class.
“As I started doing actual college theater and I had done theater a lot more and had started stage managing and being more in leadership positions, I started also becoming a lot more aware of just how many of us do not take care of ourselves, and I think that started playing a really big role in the story,” Todd said.
Auditions were held in March, with rehearsals happening shortly afterward. While Elfner said that she had a solid group that she worked with on the Theater Club’s cabaret night in December, she wanted to use the opportunity to find “new faces” to lead the show, which she discovered in Donley and Wagner.
The cast also included first-years Elijah Bieker, Payton Hartlieb and Elijah Parkos alongside junior Cecilia Wallace and sophomore Riley “Bats” Weidenfeller.
The production was put together without a budget, so Elfner and other Theater Club members searched for objects around campus that looked “backstage-y” and fit the tone of the show.
“There’s a lot of visual elements of the show that I think it was really cool to see them actually done and not just have someone, like reading stage directions but actually like, ‘Oh, the people are just doing the things that are in the stage directions,’” Todd said. “It’s the first time I’ve had something (like that) happen, so it’s very, very cool to see, and it’s really well-realized.”
Elfner, who gave a brief introduction to the show highlighting the club’s achievements in furthering theater at St. Thomas, said that she was excited by the response to the production.
“We ended up having, I don’t know how many (people) by the end of it, but it was definitely upwards of 50,” Elfner said. “It was so rejuvenating, and the audience was so electric; they were so responsive to the show.”
Between the spring production and other initiatives around campus such as story slams, Elfner said she is encouraged by the community’s response to more storytelling opportunities.
“It’s all really just coming to a really nice culmination at once right now, and I’m just really excited about it; I can’t wait to see where things go,” Elfner said.
Kevin Lynch can be reached at lync1832@stthomas.edu.