Three plays in three days.

Now try that with only 12 available students, and it is what made individuals like Mount Pleasant senior Andrew Papa help out with each play in different ways.

“This is a great experience,” he said. “I’m a production manager and working in this atmosphere is great.”

The cast put on renditions of “Your a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “The Female Odd Couple” and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” at Bush Theatre last weekend.

Papa acted in both “The Female Odd Couple” and “Shakespeare” as well as helping out with props and music for Charlie Brown.

“Shakespeare had a lot more improvisation and audience interaction and ‘The Odd Couple’ is a more character-driven role,” he said. “In ‘The Odd Couple,’ I play a Spanish boyfriend and there is great interaction between the cast.”

Mount Pleasant sophomore Joanna Koefoed played Olive, a lead role in “The Female Odd Couple.”

“She’s really sloppy unlike Florence who is really clean,” she said. “It was a lot of fun to walk around in sweat pants.”

To Koefoed, one of the most beneficial parts of participating in theater is being in front of the audience.

“We’re finally getting an audience and getting their reactions and laughs,” she said. “This is a really fun, intense program and the performances are good.”

Running the three different plays was more than just fun.

“We worked from about 9 a.m. to about 10 p.m. everyday for about a month, only taking time off for lunch,” Koefoed said.

The theater group just finished work in Mount Pleasant and now have a week off. Next week, they travel to Waterford and Boyne City to perform.

“Performing in different places presents challenges,” Papa said. “There’s a different audience, different sound, lighting.”

Communication and Dramatic Arts professor Steven Berglund, director of “The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” works just as intensely as the students.

“Three plays in the amount of time of one is a tremendous amount of work,” he said. “But fun comes along with doing work as well.”

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