No Signs of Intelligent Life
Faith Dvergsten
It’s safe to say that every one of us has had the thought that there were honestly no signs of intelligent life around us. Those thoughts seem to manifest differently in different people though, ranging from the sort of pretentious “I’m better than these people, humph”, to “No Brenda, fritos are not better than Doritos, I don’t care what you say. Why am I even friends with you?” A lot of these are really differences in the way people act and interact with others, and can actually be kind of funny when you think about them. So imagine trying to fit in with the regular flow of things while also having no idea of the customs of another country, or if we can take this another step further- another planet. This was the premise of the drama club’s spring play, No Signs of Intelligent Life by Bryan Starchman. Ten scenes and eight comical encounters show us the daily lives of aliens attempting to fit in with humans. And it’s just as weird and hilarious as it sounds.
The play starred (the newspaper’s very own) Angel Cullen, Anthony Mckee, Mackenzie Moman, Brady Larson, Ashton Comstock, Liliy Garcia, Julie Gaffaney, Ayna Garner, Grace Brickson, Jared Lundstrom, and Liam Liden. Just like any great story, a great play needs a good hook. Now a good script is important, of course, but this is a play and you need more: Mackenzie Moman. Now, I always sound like I’m gushing but if you went, I’m sure you would agree that Mackenzie brought the play to life the second she started talking. Playing the part of a sort of alien narrator, with the actual narrator, (Almighty Voice), played by Anthony Mckee (who was fantastic as well) she introduced the plot and explained why in the world aliens would be trying to fit in with humans. One of my personal favorite performances, both as an alien and as a human, was done by freshman Grace Brickson. Her enthusiasm and commitment to her character(s) was incredibly fun to watch. One of the best parts of seeing school plays like this is the way people come alive in their characters and you can feel how much they love what they’re doing. A few of my other favorite performances were done by Brady Larson, Ashton Comstock, and our previously mentioned newspaper member Angel Cullen (as an awkward alien named Denise on a first date). I can’t really leave out Liam Liden’s burger ordering alien either.
There were a lot people involved that I had no idea had any interest in drama, and I’m so glad that they do, because now I know a whole lot more about them as people rather than just faces I see in the hall. As you can tell, I was pretty impressed. So while the aliens may not have had enough glunk to get back home, they did have enough fun to get me to come back to the next play.