Norman High grads to direct plays at Duck Pond

By Andrew Knittle

Two Norman High graduates will be producing, directing and acting in two one-act plays this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Duck Pond.

The plays will be free to the public, although donations to benefit both Norman high schools will be accepted at the performances.

David Weiss and Reynolds Whalen, who graduated from Norman High in 2005 and 2004, respectively, said the two plays are both site-specific, meaning they were written with a park as a setting, and should only last about an hour apiece.

"This is sort of our first official collaboration, our first time putting on a show together," Weiss said. "We've been in shows and acted together many times before, though."

The two plays, "Small World" and "The C-Word," will begin respectively at 7 and 8 p.m. during the weekend run.

"Site-specific plays are not something a lot of people in Norman have been exposed to," Whalen said. "David and I did a lot in college and it's something we wanted to share with our hometown."

Weiss agreed the location was an important visceral component of the overall impression the plays are meant to leave on the audience.

"The Duck Pond is a nice, accessible location. It's comfortable and there's plenty of room to move around," Weiss said. "It's a great immersive experience to go see a play in the actual setting it's written for."

"Small World," which Whalen and Weiss paid $100 for the rights to perform, is about three couples -- all of whom are on blind dates -- whose conversations during the play link them together in some way. Whalen will direct "Small World," which was written by Tracey Scott Wilson.

Weiss will call the shots for the production of "The C-Word," a play the two men said was written by their friend Jonathan Baude at Washington University in St. Louis, the school both attended last year. Unlike "Small World," this play -- about a break-up -- does contain some adult language and more serious subject matter.

"Both plays are pretty much all ages, but they are both definitely targeted at high school and college-aged people," Whalen said. "They'll probably identify most with the characters and what they're dealing with in the plays."

The pair said six of the seven actors appearing in the plays are graduates of Norman high schools and that four of them are majoring in drama in college.

Getting all of them together for pre-production work hasn't been easy, Weiss said.

"Finding actors and coordinating schedules this time of year is really challenging, but we've been able to get it done," Weiss said.

Both men, who studied drama at Norman High, said the school's drama instructor Dr. Betsy Ballard was one of their biggest influences as far as acting is concerned.

"I've learned more from other people, but it was Dr. Ballard who got me interested in acting," Whalen said. "She really did start my passion and really fueled my desire to be an actor."

Weiss credits Ballard for showing him the significance of theater -- even to a high school student.

"She was really the first person I met so fully dedicated to theater," he said. "She made me realize that theater was something more than just art -- that it was something important."

As for the future, both Weiss and Whalen plan to keep pursuing their interests in theater, one way or another.

Weiss, who has one more year in college, said he plans to take a leap of faith after graduation.

"My current plan is to go to Chicago and try my luck for a while," he said. "I'm going to try and establish some connections, audition for some shows -- try my luck for at least a year or two and at least get out there."

Whalen, who has already produced a full-length documentary in Kenya's capital city Nairobi, is set to head back to Africa soon and expects to spend about six months in Rwanda where he'll be filming another documentary for a new faith-based nonprofit called Millennium Congregation. After that he plans to teach underprivileged kids in the New York City area.

"One of my ultimate goals is to facilitate the integration of drama into education programs," Whalen said. "Especially involving topics like AIDS, HIV and drug abuse."

Andrew Knittle 366-3527 aknittle@normantranscript.com