Emily Carbone ‘28
Chief Features Editor
It was a dark and stormy night. In fact, midnight had just arrived on Saturday night (technically Sunday morning) when I ventured into the night to the basement of O’Kane. The hallways were pitch-black and empty, and the treacherous weather set a very ominous mood for what was to follow. And as I walked through the propped door of the Pit… I was thankfully greeted by a large crowd of cheering students, waiting for another installment of a beloved Holy Cross tradition: Midnight Theater.
Each semester, Alternate College Theater allows members to sign up to participate in skits for midnight theater. The roles are simple: you can write, direct, act, or judge. Judges are traditionally seniors, who create prompts of settings and quotes that writers must include. Writers and directors craft their skits, and actors are randomly selected to participate in the different skits. The catch? All of this happens on Saturday.
While audience members don’t arrive at the theater until midnight, writers find out their settings and quotes at 1pm, and actors are called at 6pm to begin rehearsals. The skits were each around 10 minutes, but the prompts required writers to truly think outside of the box. The settings were specific, with required settings such as “Love Island” and a Papal Conclave being given to the writing teams. Each skit additionally featured a line that a character must say at some point in the skit. Some of these lines included “somebody get these beggars out of here,” and “make some noise,” but in a Flo Rida-esque way.
The writers certainly took creative liberties with their settings, with writers Matt Hollatz and Lila Pasquarello ‘28 creating a scene at a conclave in which characters such as Sue Sylvester and Miranda Sings fought over who would become the next pope. “It took us a minute to nail down on our characters,” Matt explained, “but once we had them all there, we had a storyline in place.” Actors, such as Nora Fortune ‘28, were given mere hours to rehearse their parts. Nora played the role of “Chud” in a skit about navigating a wild-west themed hell. “I usually go to bed at, like, 8:30 pm, so I was really tired. I had to drink an energy drink to stay up for my leading role.”
From the audience, though, the energy on stage was electric. Each skit was hilariously funny, and ad-libs from both audience members and ACT co-chairs Tyler Brackett and Lily Percival ‘27 really contributed to the audience’s uproar. Both Tyler and Lily commended the efforts of the writers and actors, giving a special shoutout to the first-years involved with each skit. “We were so lucky to have such an amazing turnout,” Lily said. “We were also very excited with how great the new freshmen were,” Tyler added. “I hope this fall inspired more people to come out and be writers in the Spring!” With the creative and humorous spins placed on the prompts by the writers, and the vibrant performances by each and every actor, I’d consider midnight theater to be an absolute success. In case you missed it (or the pit’s capacity was maxxed out), midnight theater will return next semester.
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