‘Partisan Theatrics’ mocks candidates, evaluates issues

Politics took the stage in “Partisan Theatrics [or] will our apple fall far from the bush?”

The performance Monday night consisted of 15 short plays all relating to politics in some way. The topics ranged from presidential candidates to the way the media handles politics.

“This Just In ...” featured two mock news reporters and a feminist voter who thought aloud about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The female reporter constantly gives “This just in” reports, saying things such as “Hillary Clinton is talking about you behind your back,” while the male reporter makes reports glorifying Obama before saying “details at 11.” Meanwhile, the confused voter surmises that, even though she’s a feminist, she prefers Obama over Clinton.

“O Captain My Captain” also featured three actors, including a young man and two older characters. The three are on a boat lost at sea and soon begin to argue about how to best get to safety. One suggests continuing on and looking for land, while the other argues they should stay where they are and wait for help. The man in the middle suggests they take a vote. They both agree and vote for their own theories, leaving him to be the deciding factor. After showing his indecision, he gives them each two minutes to argue their views. They eventually get so caught up with winning the debate, they lose sight of their situation and fail to see the impending danger that awaits them.

A few of the spoofs were of Obama, John McCain and Sarah Palin. The final play of the night, “A More Perfect Union,” begins with a debate between McCain and Obama.

The debate takes a heated turn, and McCain falls over dead. Moments later, Palin comes out to take his spot, and the two candidates return to the debate. The course of the debate turns to sexual innuendo, which apparently arouses Palin’s character, and she suggests they team up and run the country together.

Lora Conrad, who played Palin, studied her for more than a month to get ready for the role.

“I watched footage of the real Palin and footage of the Tina Fey Palin,” Conrad said. “I tried to find a happy medium and make her my own.”

While it was Conrad’s goal to be funny, she wasn’t out to make Palin look bad.

“It’s a challenge not to blatantly make fun of her,” she said. “I want to be respectful no matter what my opinion of her is. I want to be funny at the same time.”

I. James Torry spent a lot of time in front of the mirror to practice accurately portraying Obama. In addition, he obtained any piece of media related to Obama he could find.

“Every time I saw a picture, I’d try to mimic that picture,” Torry said. “I downloaded a lot of his speeches so I could get his tone and voice and his way of talking down.”

While portraying a political candidate is no easy task, Torry said he was up to the challenge.

“I’ve been getting people saying that I look like him,” he said. “Now I had to become him.”

Greg Ellis played McCain. He said he was able to nail down McCain’s mannerisms by watching him on the news.

“He’s got a lot of hand motions,” Ellis said. “I would look at the lines and try to get some sort of body movement in with the individual lines. Of course, in the (final) scene I didn’t have any lines, I just died.”

Judging by the audience’s reaction, Ellis said he saw Monday’s show as a success.

“I was very pleased,” he said. “You hope that they’ll laugh at about 80 to 90 percent of the things you think are funny. I think they definitely hit the 90 percent level. You could tell they enjoyed themselves.”