The Cosumnes River College Theatre Department answers the question “what happens to plays during Covid?” with a powerful collection of monologues in an online performance of “My Mother#*!^%#! College Life.”
The play marks both CRC’s first play of the semester as well as it’s first entirely digital theatre production. Despite some small technical difficulties, the production makes a strong impression by using the Zoom format to highlight each individual performance.
“My Mother#*!^%#! College Life” is a play made up of various monologues and dialogue pieces that explore all facets of the college experience. The plays topics include pieces about dating, cultural identity, sexual assault, dealing with administration and much more.
The production is split into three acts, starting off with Act 1 “Great Expectations.”
Act 1 begins with actress Abigail Maurno performing a monologue titled “College” a piece about anxieties over post highschool and the realization they may not want to go to college.
The act mainly focuses on what seems to be the first year of college. Ranging from a piece on “The F@#$%^! in Financial Aid” performed by Alex Bolanos about dealing with, as you would have guessed, a particularly frustrating experience with financial aid to “Black Hole” performed by Michelle Zamora, a piece about struggling with the anxiety of registering for classes too late and being stuck with ones you don’t want.
Act 2 is called “Paradise Lost” and comes in swinging by making use of the video format by displaying a collection of pre recorded vignettes, titled “When Winter Came”, in which the whole cast performs a few lines about betrayals and loss brought on by a past winter.
This act of the play has several monologues about disillusionment and had a lot of impressive personal performances that captured personal struggles in both serious and comedic ways. Performances like “Recovery” performed by Margarita Perez, talks about struggling with the term recovery when talking about eating disorders and the negative connotations behind the loaded world, and “Sure You Can Walk Me Home Even Though We Live in the Same Building” performed by Kay Lipsey, in which a girl puts on a facade of interest while on the phone with a particularly disinteresting past date, are two great examples of how the act examines both the serious and comedic aspects of personal challenges in college.
Act 3, titled “Metamorphosis” opens with an odd, but entertaining use of the green screen placing the faces of Leah Trinh, Lipsey, Zamora and Maurno on an insect which happens to be the namesake of the piece “Junebug”.
The act features several stories set at either the end of the college experience or in a moment where one changes emotionally. “Brannon. Brumley. Bro” performed by Marissa Wooten features Brannon, a “bro,” who has found himself both happier and more confident since deciding to present himself as a male.
Between each performance, there were resources given in response to themes of the play, such as helplines and counseling as well as some ongoing conversations with the viewers.
The Theatre Department, despite setbacks preventing a physical performance, delivers a powerful production in “My Mother#*!^%#! College Life,” as well as one that seeks not to simplify the college experience but to show as many individual experiences as possible.