Successful 2010 Theater Debut

Performers Burke Tagney, Anna Weisenburger, and Emily Waswick. Photo taken by Kayley Erlandson and used with her permission.

Written by Dillan Ostrom

Run For Your Wife by Ray Cooney opened up on October 14 and continued through the next two days. The performance was phenomenal and kept everyone in the audience entertained throughout. The venue, acting, costumes, set design and audience reaction combined to produce an electrifying experience.

Theater 320, the venue, is always a pleasant place to watch a performance and was sold out Thursday and Friday according to Zack Lee, senior actor at VCSU. The additions and renovations of the venue presented the theater in a new way. Instead of continuous seats wrapping around the theater, it was now broken up into sections audience members could sit in.  Not a seat in the house looked bad and every angle seemed to capture the action. However, what would a theater be without the actors?

Experienced actors brought enthusiasm and stability to the play as it became one of the new favorite plays Alumni Andrew Hager had seen. Actors such as Zack Lee and Burke Tagney stole the performance as their teamwork and charisma made the play comical. The wives of the play, Anna Weisenburger and Emily Waswick, complimented the males in their struggles throughout the performance and performed excellently. The other supporting roles made the play flow smoothly and did an extremely well job. The performers made the play, but the costumes brought them to life.

The costumes brought the performance to life and recreated the 1970s as they were an important piece to the puzzle. Obviously the play would still have been remarkable, but the costumes were the frosting on the doughnut. A little, but very important piece was the wardrobe changes. The wardrobe changes drew the audience in even more as they distinctly clarified different parts of the day and scenes. The costumes were a success and complimented the set.

The designers of the set deserve kudos. Their ability to split the stage in two pushed the action into different angles and distinctly showed the two settings. The two settings worked hand in hand and took audience members, like myself, deeper into the play. By having no set changes, the action flowed throughout the night and created an exceptional experience for audience members.

The audience’s reaction clearly showed the plays success. Faces in the audience were constantly smiling and chuckling at the clever play and I overheard a few students reactions. VCSU students Ryan Mehus and Amanda Bindas commented on it being the best performance ever displayed since they have been at the university. If that wasn’t enough, many community members congratulated the actors on such a successful performance after the show Friday night.  

The performance was delightful, witty and rather impressive. The recreation of the 1970s with the comical twist was priceless. However, what is more priceless is that according to Jenni Lou Russi two-thirds of the cast and crew were newly acquired by Valley City State. In less than six weeks, Russi put together a performance with new faces and new personalities which was not an easy task. The performance will forever stick out in the minds of students. To put it plainly, Run For Your Wife was simply unique.