The student theatre department at Trinidad State Junior College will be putting on the play "Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them" from Wednesday to Saturday this week. The play is a dark political comedy that was chosen by the students from several options. It deals with controversial political issues but also has comedic elements and a surprising twist at the end. The director praised the hard work of the student cast and crew and said that experiences like this can be transformative for students.

1. Tuesday, December 2, 2014 Page 5The Chronicle-News Trinidad, Colorado
By Eric John Monson
News Editor
The Chronicle-News
Why Torture is Wrong and the People
Who Love Them is the title of the student
led production at Trinidad State Junior
College’s (TSJC) Massari Theatre, showing
this Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sat-
urday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and
$3 for students.
“It’s a great little play,” said Joe Reorda
II, TSJC Theatre Department instructor
and the produc-
tion’s director. “And
I think people are
going to think it’s a
little scandalous.”
Why Torture is
Wrong and the Peo-
ple Who Love Them
is a dark political
comedy by Chris-
topher Durang. Re-
orda explains that
students read sever-
al plays this fall and
found this to be the
funniest one.
“They read a
bunch of plays and
really thought this
one was funny.
We have eight stu-
dent cast members
and nine working
backstage. Many
of them are acting
and production stu-
dents, but some just
wanted to be a part of the play. We do one of
these a semester. And these kids have really
worked hard,” said Reorda.
The story starts when the character Fe-
licity wakes up in a hotel room with her
clothes in disarray, and no idea how she
got there. She becomes even more shocked
when she finds a man in her bed. This man
is Zamir, who she apparently married the
night before while in a drunken stupor.
When Felicity suggests an annulment,
Zamir, who claims to be Irish, won’t hear
of it. Felicity’s further attempts to get infor-
mation from her new husband are mostly
unsuccessful, but his past seems to involve
illegal activities, making her wonder if Za-
mir is a terrorist.
Felicity’s parents offer her no help. Her
mother Luella has a habit of not being able
to follow a conversation, going off on one
tangent or another until she is totally lost.
She also is a major theater buff, much to the
dismay of her daughter, who thinks theater
is a pretentious bore.
Her father Leonard, an ultra-right-wing
conservative, is im-
mediately suspi-
cious of Zamir, with
both men threaten-
ing to kill each other
at their first meet-
ing.
There’s also the
question of just who
are the people with
the code names of
“Scooby-Doo” and
“Looney Tunes,”
as well as a narra-
tor who some of the
characters can hear
at certain points.
Included in the
text, are some seri-
ous political points.
Everybody wants
our country to be
safe. But going too
far, as Leonard does,
may cause innocent
people to get caught
in the crossfire. At
the same time, Felicity, who just wants
things to be normal and sweet, by ignoring
what has gone on before, envisions a world
where everybody is literally dancing in the
dark.
Reorda says the ending is the big payoff
in this zany political twister.
“It definitely makes fun of the blue/red
state politics thing, but there’s a twist at
the end that throws everything up in the
air. This play was written about five years
ago and it’s really still contemporary,” said
Reorda.
When asked about his students in this
play Reorda said, “They’ve worked re-
ally hard. For a lot of students this is their
first experience with theatre. It’s a power-
ful thing and a great college experience. I
think art, like this, has the ability to trans-
form lives so quickly.”
Arts&CommunityOPENING NIGHT
LOCAL HEALTH
Trinidad State Theatre Department
presents new student play this week
Photos by Eric John Monson/The Chronicle-News
Pictured above and left Amari Williams, Nita Cordova, Eric Luna and John Garcia perform during
their dress rehersal for Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, Sunday night at
the Messari Theatre. The play is open to the public this Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
at 7 p.m. Below Destiny Sanchez and Mari Rivas play their mother/daughter roles.
Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who
Love Them to be shown at Messari Theatre
Special to The Chronicle-News
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