Multiple departments came together Thursday night to stage a unique production that involved 60 one-minute pieces, including silent plays communicating with props and choreographed dances.
The school’s 2019 60×60 was held in the Morrow Field House Dance Studio and involved different modes of collaboration between individuals from the dance, music, theatre, and art departments. It was the 11th edition of such a production.
David Skeele and Jonathan Flom of the theatre department worked with actors for the scene pieces. This was the second year that that department was involved in the production.
Andrew Hasenpflug and Jennifer Keller-Birkes both represented the dance department’s faculty.
Most of the soundtrack came from David Morneau, a producer known most for composing a one-minute piece of music every day for an entire year, a project that he posted on its own website: 60×365. Up until this year, the productions used a playlist from a company called Voxnovus.
Another way the departments mixed it up was to add five performances that included live music and others that used no music at all.
Along with the change in music, the production’s venue was also switched. Although the studio in McKay is more spacious, the production was relocated to the field house this year because the education building’s space isn’t wheelchair accessible.
“We’re trying to be more aware of accessibility and the spaces,” said Hasenpflug who was serving as organizer and music director. “The field house is better for that. It has elevators and a ramp and handicapped parking spots.”
Not like usual long running shows, Hasenpflug feels the turnover and format made for a more engaged audience.
“If you’re going to see the River City Brass, it’s going to be six songs and they’re all going to be brass ensemble songs,” Hasenpflug said. “For this, it just comes from a different place and perception. You get to see the talent of so many people and for the most part, they’re putting their best foot forward.”
With a clock as the backdrop on the curtains, the soundtrack included a 60 Minutes news show ticker and repetitive anchor introductions, high-pitched alien-type sounds and a fast-forwarded voice such as that of a disclaimer on a radio commercial. One performance made use of wearable sailcloth art made by associate professor of art Heather Hertel.
Hasenpflug estimated around ten acting pieces, counting a woman caring for her newborn with church organs in the background, a businessman futilely fending off the undead and a boy trading his action figure for a doll before being scolded. And, finally, a pair of girls in onesies enjoying pizza, to which one asked her dad in the crowd, “Are you proud of me?”
In a fashion fitting for such an uncommon production, the show ended, rather than started, with a raucous drumroll.
