The Apollo Iliad Theater was host to “An Evening of One Acts”. Nov. 13- 15, The San Diego Mesa Theater Company put on a student directed production comprising of four un-related scenes. Every act had a different student director who chose their short scene based on important issues that reflect their own life experiences.

The production started into is first act without introduction, “The Man Who Couldn’t Dance” directed by Joseph Bekkedahl followed by “Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World” directed by Amy Peters with a short 15-minute intermission. The production then returned with “Loyalties” directed by David Macdonald Jr. and “The Problem” directed by Mariana Leon. The stage was sparsely set with props leaving it up to the actors to gain the audiences attention. The premise of this production was a good idea but turned out to be poorly executed.

“Evening of One Acts” was completely student-run, from the actors to the set to production and the direction. All the acts tackled different and difficult real life problems that the audience could possibly relate to in one way or another. The opening act was very brief and hard to follow as the backs of the actors played the biggest roles in the scene. In contrast, the second act was well acted but required patience as well as few cups of coffee. This set the tone for the play as a whole; four acts that had no average time limit with inconsistent acting and production.

It probably was in the best interest of the theater company to only have presented their show for one weekend seeing it would be pointless in having more weekend showings. While sitting in the audience a few people where slowly enveloped in the comfort of sleep and the unmistakable sound of texting distracted fellow audience members from the play. The production was uninteresting and slow. It failed to grab and lock in the audiences’ attention.

Feeble attempts to interpret the production revealed meaning and relatable situations that were lost in the mundane and sup par execution and production. Feeling intent for certain characters was at times void. Certain acts such as ” Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World” were well acted and directed, but was much to long to be appropriate for the production.

The San Diego Mesa Theater Company hopefully did not expect too much out of this “Evening of One Acts”. This one- act, one- weekend event should not be one to regret to have missed. While the idea of this production was to get its audience to dig deep emotionally and morally, it was much more effective at putting them to sleep.