Original Student Productions

Student Written, Directed and Produced Plays

OJC offers students interested in theater arts a unique experience: to be able to write, direct, produce and perform their own original plays!

2011 STUDENT PRODUCTIONS: Hard Convictions

Hard Convictions, a play written and directed by Otero Junior College sophomore Charles Hatfield, premiered Thursday, October 6, at 7:00 p.m. in the Ed Stafford Theatre. A second performance was held Friday, October 7, at 7:00 p.m., also in the theatre.

Charles Hatfield, an OJC sophomore from Ordway, Colorado, wrote, directed and acted in the courtroom comedy Hard Convictions, a student production that premiered October 6, 2011, at the Ed Stafford Theatre.

Hatfield, from Ordway, Colorado, wrote the play as a class project during spring semester 2011. He describes the play as courtroom comedy that is “…a cross between A Few Good Men and Naked Gun.”

The plot revolves around a contemporary “trial of the century” set in a modern-day courtroom. The defendant, Liquor License, played by Courtney Wezel of Karval, Colorado, is accused of murder. Her attorney Mark Jackson, played by Hatfield, knows nothing about law, and the prosecutor Derek Burgoing, portrayed by Cory Higgs of Cheraw, Colorado, is the pampered son of a wealthy businessman who managed to get his son appointed district attorney. Burgoing is trying his first case, appearing before the cranky, cynical Judge James Turner, played by Shaun Holcomb of Las Animas, Colorado. “The Honorable” James Turner is the sanest of the bunch, ably assisted by his no-nonsense Bailiff, played by Katie Newens of La Junta, Colorado.

Liquor License, played by Courtney Wezel from Karval, displays her high-fashion fur-lined handcuffs as she enters Judge James Turner’s courtroom charged with murder. Will her fashion sense and a few twists and turns in the case get her off?

Things get crazy when the lead witness for the defense, a drunken psychiatrist named Dr. Jesse Maverick, played by Stephen Lange of Cheraw, Colorado, is called to the stand. Maverick can’t tell the difference between statements and questions. The star witness for the prosecution, played by Madeline Kennedy of Fiskdale, Massachusettts, is Victor Chase, who has his own issues with the truth, and nothing but the truth. Can Judge Turner keep control of his courtroom?

Before the final gavel falls, the jury system gets a rigorous workout in this lively send-up of courtroom drama, thanks to jury members played by Zack Ace of Ordway, Colorado, and William Mendoza of La Junta, Colorado.

“As this is my first play, I would like to go ahead and say, ‘Sorry.’ Not for the play, but for my comatose condition,” commented Hatfield. Hatfield served as director, producer, scriptwriter, casting director, lighting technician, and actor, in order to mount the production in four weeks.

“What made this smoother than silk is the cast, a group of sugar fed, ADHD, caffeine-addicted teenagers with nothing better to do than throw together a play,” said Hatfield. “Looking back on it, now…I wish I hadn’t gotten them addicted to caffeine.”

Helping out with the late nights, early mornings, long weekends and rehearsals at the Bamboo Panda Café were Dylan James, James Enriquez, Justin Murkay, Michael Molina, Jake Gonzales, Tino Martinelli, Moses Molina, Michael Garcia, Dillon Hancock, Michelle Hull, Kameryn Hicks, Louella Cruz, Steve Baker, Martha Pearson, Savana King, Shelbi Imhof, Trevor Wynn, Shianne Manlatos, and Julia Harris.

 

The 24-Hour Plays

In this annual event, participants spend all night on Friday, under faculty supervision, working in the Ed Stafford Theatre creating new plays that receive their first public performance 24 hours later on Saturday night. Sponsored by the Otero Players and the Arts Department at OJC, Otero Junior College students and community participants created and produced three one act plays. Last year (2010) the process began at 7 p.m. on Friday April 16th with an ambitious writing team who created three different plays, each one set on the same corner of imaginary Lookout Street in three different time periods (1890, 1950, and 2001). Each of the three plays involved a thief who acted as a magical “agent of change” resulting in a loss of innocence.

Each play also included the following mandatory dialogue:

1. You know, I could have used a couple of these this afternoon.
2. This is no time for jokes, you idiot.
3. I really don’t know what you’re talking about, you know that? What’s more, I don’t think you do either.
4. I want you to know I’ve never done anything like this before.
5. How long you gonna be in there?

Following a free public performance of these new works at 7 p.m. on Saturday April 17th in the Ed Stafford Theatre, the audience voted by applause for their favorite usage of the mandatory dialogue..

The first 24-Hour Play Day was held April 6 and 7, 2007, and produced three new one-acts: Mary Acid?, At The Ranch, and A Wedding, Indeed!! April 11 and 12, 2008 students produced two new plays: Argh! and Eastland High Love. In 2009 the event on April 17th produced three more new one-acts: Once Upon a Time in La Junta, Things to do With a Moose, and Put A Sock In It! Last year's 24-Hour Play Day, April 16th-17th, 2010, produced Creepy Lullaby, Title Lost to Antiquity, and Death of the Ingrate. This year look for new creative plays from OJC's talented students.

24 Hour Plays ~ April 16th - 17th 2010!

Cast of the 2010 24 Hours Plays

Matthew Dennis, Bradford Schultz, Charles Hatfield, Elizabeth Eubank, Nichole Foxhoven and Kat Dennis talk with the audience following the performance.

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Original Student Productions:

Students at OJC have the freedom and flexibility to experiment a bit. "This sort of student responsibility, if it occurs at all, is normally not available until the senior year at a four-year school. There is something magic about having a hand in creating, directing, and producing a play from conception to production. These students are making the most of that opportunity," said Steve Simpson, Theater Director at OJC.

An original play by Mark Randall

Darkness, written by OJC student Mark Randall, began its journey to the stage in the fall of 2007 as an outline and a vision. After registering for an internship in play writing under the supervision of OJC Director of Theatre Steve Simpson, Randall put his creative energies to work throughout the fall semester, shepherding what had once been an idea into a chilling one-act depiction of a mother’s decline into the depths of mind and memory as she deals with the unexpected death of her daughter.

Randall has taken the process one step further this semester by directing the premier performance of his new play. Randall’s cast includes, Melissa Root, Taylor Ballard, Ashley Jo Owen, Jesse Bradford, Elizabeth Montejano, Sydney McCormack, Sophia Alvarez, Maria Armijo, John Eubank, Steven Beamen, and Jim Justice.

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An original play by
Elizabeth Montejano & Chad Evett

A Wedding Indeed is a new play that grew out of a collaborative student effort in the spring of 2007. The Otero Players sponsored a “24-Hour Play Day” during which OJC students conceived, wrote, rehearsed, and produced three new plays in one hectic 24-hour period. Chad Evett and Elizabeth Montejano, with able assistance from Melissa Root and Ashley Jo Owen, fashioned “a comedy riddled with science fiction, romance, and zombies.”

Elizabeth Montejano directs this unusual (and hilarious) offering featuring Chad Evett, Melissa Root, Ashley Jo Owen, Jesse Bradford, Brad Schultz, and Sydney McCormack and a contingent of zombie wedding guests that wail a rendition of the “Wedding March” like you’ve never heard it before. Chad Evett is the costume designer for both plays.

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