This document provides a summary of the play Time Flies, which will be Mount Holyoke's first production of the season. It consists of a series of short comedic sketches written by David Ives that will feature 8 students from the Five Colleges under the direction of Roger Babb. The sketches exhibit bizarre and zany humor similar to The Twilight Zone. One sketch depicts a woman experiencing constant déjà vu. The cast has worked to transform the individual sketches into a cohesive whole. The play is described as a light comedy that will have the audience laughing at the characters' antics and confusion. Time Flies is said to be a "must see" production and will run from October 23-25.

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Déjà vu, TV and transciencent moments fill Time Flies
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October 9, 2008 Mount Holyoke News
he falling leaves of autumn are here, and so is Time Flies is
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BY KAYLA LAMBERT ’12
CONTRIBUTING WRITER Mount Holyoke’s first play of the season. It will be a must see event
the comedy Time Flies, a series of short pieces writ- for this year. All
ten by playwright, David Ives. Ives’s quirky humor will be epitomized by eight students of the perform-
of the Five Colleges in the course of five skits, all under the direction of Mount Holyoke ances are done
theatre arts professor, Roger Babb. When asked why he chose Time Flies, Babb re- with such a
sponded, “It’s a light, frothy, frivilous play. I thought it would be easy, but it ended up seemingly effort-
being very difficult, and I am amazed at how interesting it is.” The skits exhibit a broad less comic
range of the zany and bizarre, not unlike what the Twilight Zone would be like if written styling that it is
as a comedy. “It’s not dated, like so many other plays. It was written a few decades ago, impossible to
but it’s still very funny today,” said David Goldman of UMass, one of the cast members. keep from get-
Enigma Variations tells the story of Mrs. Bebe Doppelgangler, a woman with “a Ger- ting engrossed
man name but a French disease”. The feeling of déjà vu is a relentless affliction for her, in the quirkiness
and she cannot shake off the notion that she is living a double-life. The skit is cleverly of the events tak-
choreographed with shadow characters in the back of the stage mimicking the primary ing place. “I have
characters’ gesticulations, creating a double-vision effect. In the second half of the skit, been surprised
the primary and shadow characters switch places and the story comes around full circle, at how well the
which successfully completes the déjà vu sensation. cast memebers Photo by Sadie Shiletto
The cast and crew have taken the play from just a series of skits and molded it into have played off Sally O’Doherty ‘10 and Janice Acevedo ‘09 prepare for the upcoming theater pro-
a cohesive unit. “There are tansitions set up so the whole thing is one big, flowing entity, each other, it’s duction ofTime Flies.
and it’s really fantastic.” Goldman explained. very enjoyable,”
Captive Audience is a humorous spoof about Rob and Laura, a normal couple with commented Assistant Director Margaret Kelley ’12. You’ll find yourself laughing out
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an abnormal interest in prime time television, which reaches the point of obsession. loud at the antics, confusion and utter chaos the characters get caught up in. “If you’re
Such a compulsion should resonate with any modern day American. It expounds on the looking for a good time,” Vanessa Martinez ’11 said, “this is the play for you.”
question of whether we, the people, control television or if the television controls us.
Then there is the title skit of the play, which follows the very short lives of two mayflies, Time Flies opens on Thursday Oct. 23 in the Rooke Theatre and runs through Oct. 25. The
May and Horace, who go on a date and realize they have only 24 hours to live. It is a fun opening night performance is free to Mount Holyoke students and costs $3 for the Friday and
performance that begins with the two mayflies dealing with their teenage hormones. It Saturday performances.
isn’t long, however, before they start to rapidly mature and age as their day-long life
comes closer to an end.
BY JOANNA ARCIERI ’10 The silence was tary cinema. But what drives their work is more experimental, some more documen-
ilmsamstag
A&E CO-EDITOR deafening as an a commitment to the diary film. tary.”
audience of eager The diary film is an unheard-of con- What is perhaps most interesting is
students waited for a unique film program cept outside the realm of avant-garde cin- that, as Aurand and Gierke noted, the con-
to begin. Following a brief introduction to ema. These films are often compelling text of their work changes depending on
An evening
the lives and careers of three practically examinations of daily life and explorations the audience. The unexpected presence of
unheard of women filmmakers, Ute Au- of the world surrounding the filmmakers. the American folk song, “City of New Or-
rand simply said, “We’ll just start.” That As Gierke explained, “Making any film is leans,” in Sami’s Film Diary, 1975-1985,
was how an unprecedented screening of personal…[It is] my point of view, not confused many audience members and be-
of feminist
nearly three hours of German experimen- yours, mine.” lieved it contributed to a deeper, political
tal films began. Gierke, as well as Aurand and Sami, meaning within the film.
“Three German Filmmakers, Three use different formats and methods to de- The screenings atmosphere echoed
German
Decades of Filmmaking” introduced an au- pict their view of reality and to create the collective spirit of Filmsamstag; it was
dience of Mount Holyoke students and fac- unique diary films. the first Five College film studies event
ulty, as well as Five College students, to In the program screened at Mount since the major was created in 2006. The
film
renowned Berlin filmmakers Aurand, Holyoke there was a mix of 16mm, digital overwhelming student presence and re-
Milena Gierke and Renate Sami. and Super 8 film. The complexity and sponse to the program implies that more
Since 1997, the women have presented beauty of the images explored through Five College film events will be a tremen-
their work together. As founding mem- these mediums is heightened by an over- dous success for the film department.
bers of Filmsamstag (Film-Saturday), a whelming absence of sound and an insis-
unique curatorial collective that operated tence that Dwight 101 be pitch dark. “Films From Three Decades” is being
from 2000-2007, they boast a common inter- Emma Scarloss ’10 said, “I enjoyed that screened at the Goethe-Insitut in New York
Intervention: entertainment or voyeurism?
est in avant-garde, feminist and documen- they [the films] were all different; some on Oct. 11-12. For more information visit
www.goethe.de/ins/us/ney.
BY ANNE DERRIG ’09 The show is deeply, deeply dis- source on a topic that’s everp-
STAFF WRITER turbing. It absolutely exploits its resent in American life. At the
I’ve spent hours watching the subjects; of course the camera crew beginning of every episode,
YouTube videos of A&E’s Interven- is granted permission to film, but the screen reads: “Millions of Amer-
tion in ten-minute clips: girls vomit- getting consent from someone icans struggle with addiction. Most
ing up lunch and injecting heroine under the influence of a substance need help to stop. This is [the sub-
and passing out. Part I: zoom in on is not much of a permission at all. Its ject’s] story.” And
the vodka bottles. Part II: “I don’t only redeeming quality may be that it could be argued
know why I do this,” one pale look- the subject is offered a trip to a that this style of
ing man says. “It’s not fun any- rehab facility because of their par- show might be helpful
more.” ticipation in the show. Nearly all ac- to teenagers who may
“I hope you’re proud of your- cept. well be surrounded by drug
self,” said one friend on a Saturday How do you rationalize the use and tempted by its more
night. “You’re watching two kids worth of such a voyeuristic show? glamorous aspects.
crying while being interviewed While Intervention certainly Intervention does everything in
about their addict of a parent. I hope doesn’t glamorize drug use, it does, its power, including shamelessly
you feel good about yourself. I’m in a sense, normalize it. Everything, manipulating the viewer, to make
going to bed.” even intravenous drug use, is shown these people relatable. Because you
My question is: how do you walk on camera, and you watch the sub- see everything — everything — you
away from it? ject’s blood clouding up the syringe. stop recognizing yourself as an out-
Intervention follows days in the These users always look deadpan, sider and get drawn into the story,
life of addicts, ranging from anorex- matter-of-fact, relieved. and you’re reminded of your voyeur
ics to those hooked on pain killers. After these close-ups, you’re status only when a tantrum is
Each story is presented quietly. No thrown into the show’s middle, a thrown and a shoe comes flying at
narrator reads the background in- slideshow of rationalization: there is the camera. The viewer inhabits the
formation. Instead, it sort of floats always a story. Siblings and parents subject, becomes the user, and it’s
up on a black screen: “Bettina voiceover on pictures, explaining the sort of unlimited view you could
drinks up to 36 cans of beer a day.” there was a divorce, her father died, only get in our unique Real World
Because no one is directly telling he lost his job. age. Which comes with its own set
you, it feels like intrinsic knowledge, Ethically, does it matter who is of problems: is it ethically responsi-
like you’ve known it all along; it is as doing the watching? If we’re to artic- ble to watch the show on a lazy
if you know these people. You watch ulate the ethical responsibilities of Monday night, curled up on the
a mother lift her child up, and the such a show, do we have to take into couch, gaining cheap entertainment
camera stays on her face, so that consideration who is absorbing the without absorbing the full moral im-
you’re seeing what the child does: a morals, and, for that matter, what pact of our watching?
calm, motherly face who prostitutes those morals are? The show pres-
herself to afford money for drugs. ents itself as an educational re- Intervention airs on Mondays at 9
p.m. on A&E.