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Three Westminster Senior Theater Majors Produce Original Play

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Posted on Friday, November 12, 2004

Three Westminster College senior theater majors, Robert Allen, Rachael Mellor, and Justin Bryan, will present an original play, "Hold On," Saturday, Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m. in Beeghly Theater.

 "I wrote the play over the summer while working for the Huron Playhouse in Ohio," Allen said.  "The inspiration for the play came to me while I was reading a novel.  It took me two months to finish this 63-page script."

 "I am one of the lead characters in the play," Mellor said.  "I'm helping with the props, doing the publicity and program.  The play is a completely student-run project.  We design and build the set, lighting design, sound, costumes, props, publicity, directing, writing and acting."

 "The play is about Holden and Julie, two students who have just graduated from college.  Holden plans to ask Julie to marry him, but is worried about how her overprotective father will take it," Allen said.  "Both characters spend time confiding in their best friend, as they try to convince Julie's father to let them go ahead with the wedding.  The play takes a huge twist at the end of the first act, and then goes in a totally different direction in the second act."

 "I worked closely with Bob this summer on the play.  I play Rick, Julie's father in the show.  He's an overprotective, but loving father, and the reasons he acts as he does come through when you find out what made him the man he is.  I'm also the assistant director," Bryan said. 

"Bob, Justin, and I are also putting together a short Shakespeare presentation that will follow the play.  The three of us have monologues in "Twelfth Night Abridged,' that is a required element in our capstone," Mellor said.

  The final component of Liberal Studies at Westminster is a senior capstone course, which is at least a four-semester-hour course within the major designed to provide an opportunity for students to evaluate and assess the strengths and limitations of their major field.

 "Along with doing the show Justin, Bob and I also keep journals of every rehearsal and write a paper analyzing the script and our characters," Mellor said. 

 The trio has enlisted other Westminster students to help with the production.
 
 "The cast includes Mick Henninger, as the male lead.  Tom Burkhart and Sarah Timm also have roles in the play," Allen said.  "The set was designed by Ben Wacker, who is also the stage manager; lights were designed by Amanda Kovacic; John Buco is the assistant stage manager; Nicole Patterson is the house manager."

 The play has been entered in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival scheduled for January 2005.
 
The event is free and open to the public.  For more information, contact Allen at (330) 307-4003 or e-mail allenrp@westminster.edu.