The play Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, created by Greg Allen, was performed in Studio 2 at FAU’s Boca Raton campus.

Sponsored by the theatre honor society Alpha Psi Omega, the Dec. 1 performance was a series of thirty plays, each of them varying in length.

The performance was created entirely by students—a student director, student actors, and students designers for lighting and sound formed the production team. Twenty-seven student actors were cast by director and BFA theatre major Melissa Mauer.

Before the play began, the entire cast came out for a pre-show. Student actor Corey Rose got some audience members to dance to the Spice Girls song “Wannabe.”

Meanwhile, two actors C.J. Borger and Chris Taylor, wore big, curly wigs while sitting at a table on the stage with a crystal ball and purple dildo, offering lollipops to whoever consulted them for advice.  Dances like the Cupid Shuffle, the Cha-Cha Slide, and the Electric Slide continued until showtime.

When the show began at 7:05 p.m. cast members came out to introduce the play and explain how it worked. Within the program, the audience was given a list of all thirty plays, along with their title.

At the back of the stage was a clothes line with the numbers 0-30 pinned to them. It was explained that when someone from the cast says “curtain” the current play is over, and the audience needs to shout out another play that we want to see. The order is completely random, so the actors had to memorize the play by their numbers and be ready to go once it’s called.

“I’m looking forward to see what type of show it is,” said Dante Davis, a junior BFA theatre major. “They said it’s not like your typical type of show, so I’m excited to see what they mean by that.”

The plays incorporated genres ranging from drama, horror, and comedy, to political satires. Some were even plays within a play, such as Number 16 called Sudden Death and Resurrection, when a character in the current play would get stabbed and killed by an actor who wasn’t involved. Then the dead character would resurrect and continue with their play.

The longest plays were no more than about seven minutes long, the shortest one only being one word.

Jordan Mack, a senior accounting major, said his favorite part of the show was “the constant and changing environment in every single play.”

After the show there was time allowed for the audience to interact with the actors and participate in improv games. Next semester, Alpha Psi Omega will be putting on A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare in Studio 2 from February 9-11, 2018 and Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them from April 6-8, 2018.

Tickets are free, just reserve your seat by emailing [email protected] with the correct date and the number of seats you want.

Kamilah Douglas is a contributing writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].