On April 23 – 26 the theater will host their last production of the year, “Black Comedy.” They are wrapping up their final week of practice before opening night.
“Black Comedy” is a one act play written by Peter Shaffer. It uses a reverse-lighting gimmick to show the viewer what the characters don’t see in a blackout. The play is a slapstick comedy that uses the physical movement of furniture and the movement of characters to its benefit. You follow Brindsley, a struggling sculptor, played by Easton King, a senior majoring in communications, and Carol his fiancé, played by Bailey Danner, a junior majoring in education, who is borrowing furniture from their neighbor to impress a rich art collector when there is a blackout. They have to juggle Carol’s military father, their next-door neighbor, their posh spinster upstairs neighbor, and the appearance of Brindsley’s ex-girlfriend all at once. They must move furniture back before anyone notices and when the power is turned back on.
King commented on getting to play Brindsley and having more physicality to the character.
“It’s one of my favorite parts, honestly, it’s purely just physical. So, I have to rely on my body to be funny and not to be too distracting with like, the actors that are actually talking on stage. It’s been a challenge, but it’s been a lot of fun.”
King continues speaking about opening night, saying, “Oh, I’m excited. This is a funny one, so I’m glad to end on a funny note. It’s going to be good. We have to go through it no matter what happens.”
Having more physical roles that the characters play, the actors get to move and really express themselves through who they play. This is further influenced by the personal relationships all of the characters have with one another.
Aspen Williams, a Pittsburg community member, talks about their first show of “Black Comedy,” Putting it into perspective before a show opens, it’s a little hectic. It either stays the same or it could change, and it’s a whole learning process.” Williams continues, “It’s a living process, and you know, we get used to it, and we just hope everything goes well on the finished product.”
With a large cast of eight characters there are many moments where people are not speaking, this makes it so the actors need to have good expressive body language during non-speaking scenes. With the apartment set up of the scene, it often occurs that characters are in separate rooms from one another.
“Black Comedy” is the final theater production of this school year, wrapping up the 2025-2026 season. Dr. Megan Westhoff, the director of theater, talks about this ending.
“It’s always bittersweet. I mean, I think we’ve had a great year, and we’ve had a lot of talented students and they’ve learned a lot, but it always is.”
Westhoff continues to talk about the seniors graduating, Easton King being one of them.
“It’s one of those things because we have people who are graduating, it’s always exciting to see what they’ve learned in their skills and just their experience, but then it’s like, oh, wait, now you have to go away and do your thing. So, it’s always bittersweet, but I think we’ve had a great year, and I think that’s always very rewarding.”