The College of Engineering Does Amateur Radical Theatre is satirizing popular movies and Hollywood in its production of “Completely Hollywood!” on Friday and Saturday in HM Comer Hall.
The play pokes fun at the cultural and industrial construction of Hollywood and its commercialization of art. It magnifies and picks apart recognizable aspects of Hollywood like big movie images, product placement and typical ideas about actors and directors.
“It’s very in-your-face, quick-paced comedy. It’s satire in all ways of saying,” CDA president and director Jonathan Whitesell said.
“Completely Hollywood!” includes new takes on famous movie scenes from films like “The Wizard of Oz,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “When Harry Met Sally.” The two-hour performance will not be a traditional play with the actors following a single, linear plot. Instead, the actors will present a series of sketches that feed into the larger storyline.
The show will engage a lot of audience participation by allowing them to answer questions and even participate in onstage action.
“This kind of play is all about understanding that there is an audience. It’s not just a show, it’s more of a lecture, so [the actors] understand that there’s an audience, and they’re talking to the audience the whole time,” Whitesell said. “It’s all about getting the audience in on the show itself.”
The CDA is an amateur theatre group run by members of the College of Engineering but is open to students of all majors as a more open, less competitive alternative to other campus theatre.
“The CDA got started with the idea of letting people who are not in the theatre program on campus have an outlet like this. We want to give [students] a fun community outlet, something that they can do that’s very laid back and open to anything. It’s just fun,” Whitesell said.
According to Whitesell, the interdisciplinary nature of the group is what sets it apart from other on-campus theatre.
“It’s much more laid back. It’s much more open to people who aren’t used to doing theatre,” Whitesell said.
One of the main objectives for the CDA is to become more involved in campus life and to engage more of the UA community.
“We want to try and get more integrated into campus,” Whitesell said. “We want to be a bit of a bigger force. We want to work with, for instance, the Guerilla Theatre on campus. We want to be doing one acts here and there: Fun nights, open mic nights, improv nights. We want to be more UA-community driven. We want to let people know who we are and be a force [on campus] again.”
The CDA’s current series, called “Engineers Present,” also includes comical plays that are similar in satirical style and includes “The Complete History of America (Abridged),” “Shakespeare (Abridged)” and “The Complete History of the World: The Musical” to be performed next semester. So far, audiences have responded positively to the series.
“The audience has, so far, raved about these [plays],” Whitesell said. “They’re hysterical, they say. I’m hoping we get a good response from this one, as well.”
“Completely Hollywood!” will be performed Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door.
