The Seattle Pacific University Theatre Company produced two nights of one-act plays on Wednesday, Feb. 4 and Thursday, Feb. 5. Previously, the performances were part of the final project for the directing class, which is no longer offered due to the dissolution of the theatre department at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year. Now, the theater club is holding the annual event.
The event, held in the studio theater of McKinley Hall, featured four short plays: “Within the Garden Walls,” “Chicken is Condemned To Be Free,” “Immodulation” and “The Philadelphia.”
As SPU Theatre Company’s co-executive producer and production manager, fourth year theatre performance and honors major Lissie Edmonds has found a unique fondness for one-act plays. She shared what she believes makes them special when reflecting on her experience with directing “Chicken is Condemned To Be Free.”
“I love ten minute plays because you can do lots of weird things that you cannot do with a full show. The process of directing the chicken play was so fun, it has a lot of theater of the absurd elements that I love, that doesn’t show up in scripts a lot,” Edmonds said.
Fifth year Emily Haan appreciated the energy that was invested into the production. Acting as the current co-executive producer and artistic director of SPU Theatre Company, she found that the personal touch each play had helped make room for the passion displayed by the directors and actors alike.
“It was really fun to see four different shows that represented [the directors’] personalities so well. They were pretty wacky, a little silly, some were existential, so creating space for that expression and having all of the actors be willing and ready and enthusiastic was super cool,” Haan said.
Since the department was cut, theater at Seattle Pacific has functioned differently. The successes the club has seen this year has given Edmonds confidence in how Seattle Pacific University Theatre Company will manage.
“Our goal was to put on a main production, but that is really hard and we didn’t know what that would look like. We said, ‘how about we ramp up to a main production, where fall quarter we have a one-night cabaret event, winter quarter we have a night of one-acts and spring quarter we hopefully do a full-production?’ That is what ended up happening, which is wild because we thought we would hit more problems along the way,” Edmonds said.
The goal this year was to give students a way to engage with theater regardless of their experience and without making a full-time commitment.
“[With] One-Acts we thought about, ‘how can this be a really good experience and a positive artistic expression where we all learn a lot and have fun, but is also a lower entry barrier and less of a time commitment?’” Haan said.
To the cast and crew, the production was a hopeful sign for theater at Seattle Pacific University.
“It is hard to lose your whole department and the structure that dictated our lives, so all of the support that we have gotten is great. We are excited to see you all again in the spring,” Haan said.
To keep updated with events and ways to get involved follow @sputheatre.
