All week long a festival of one-act-plays called Show, Don’t Tell has been taking place in Bud Walton Theater at 7:30 p.m.  

Show, Don’t Tell features seven plays written and directed by students in the Theatre Directing class.

Each night, from Monday, April 29 through Saturday, May 4, two or three one-acts per night have been performed, and audiences have had the option to view each on two separate occasions.

The plays are Lez-Be-Honest by Abby Railsback, 60 Seconds: Go by Devri Brock, and Recovery by Lucretia Baker performed on April 29 and May 2; Head 2 Head by Moose Leighton and Meet Me Half Way by Trenton Henderson performed on April 30 and tonight, May 3; Yard Sale by Dawn Leiser and Belief by Ariel Horton performed on May 1 and to be performed tomorrow on May 4.

 The one-act plays are unique to each student and explore a wide variety of influences, social and cultural issues and real-life experiences.

The first production of the festival was Lez-Be-Honest by Railsback, who has set her sights on graduate school for acting, said, “We had so many rehearsals it was nice to just watch them play without stopping them.”

Amy Howard of Joplin, came out to view “Lez-Be-Honest” and said, “It was really well directed and acted.  I think that Hunter [Dowell], the main guy, did a really good job of playing a girl and pulling it off.”  

The second play was “Recovery” by Lucretia Baker.  

It was a realistic glimpse into the life of a family dealing with the issues of diabetes, alcoholism, divorce, and getting older.  

Brianna Gil, a freshman sociology major, said that “Recovery” was “funny” and “touching.”

The last play performed on the first night of the festival was “60 Seconds: Go” by Devri Brock.  

It was an amusing perspective on stereotypes in show business and the tribulations novice actors must face when trying to make it big.

“These were really well written, but this one was really good because it had a message, but it was still really funny.  The characters were really funny,” said Zoe Musick, a student at North Middle School.

Her sister, Charity Musick, a junior vocal performance major who is transferring from Wichita to Southern, said,

“They were all well written, well performed, great story lines, hilarious. There was not a dull moment.”  

 The next night, April 30, “Head 2 Head” by Moose Leighton and “Meet Me Half Way” by Trenten Henderson made their debut.  

 “I believe, as with most writers, my inspiration for this show has to start with my own experiences,” said Leighton.

“Although this is taken to a farcical view, there is some hidden truth here.

“What I want audiences to take away from this show is that we should love ourselves and not be ashamed of who we are.”

Raymond Ferguson, a junior speech communication major, said that he really enjoyed both of the plays.

“I feel like both plays were really well done, written and acted,” he said. “My favorite part of the first one was probably the hippie dude.”

“I don’t know that I had a favorite part [in Meet Me Half Way], but the lead role did a really great job.”

Henderson plays a small role in his own show, Jack, the more comedic, scatter-brained character in the friendship.

“Directing and acting are two total different things,” said Henderson. “It was challenging to be the director and still think like a director, then acting as well. It ended up being a really great experience, we got to feed off each other and learn from each other.”

The second round of performances of these two plays will be tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Bud Walton Theater.

The last round of one-act premiers came on May 1 with “Yard Sale” by Dawn Leiser and “Belief” by Ariel Horton.

Leiser said that her inspiration for writing “Yard Sale” came from her personal experiences with returning to college.

“The story of ‘Yard Sale’ happened to me last August when I was having a yard sale in Carthage,” she said. “Roxanne [the main character] is a nontraditional student at MSSU who has been holding onto memorabilia way too long.

This story is about her struggle to get rid of this memorabilia so she can get over her painful past.”

The second play of the evening was “Belief” by Horton.

“The second play was from a religious stand point, and it was out there, and it pointed out some interesting religious beliefs,” said Sydney Marsellis, a junior communication major.

The second round of “Yard Sale” and “Belief” will be performed tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in the Bud Walton Theater.