Two CMU students star in double-feature this week

Sometimes, all it takes is two great actors to truly bring a story to life.

Holly junior Dan Martin and Clinton Township senior Scott Freeman hope to do just that.

The duo will star in “Double Take: The Dumb Waiter and the Vortex,” a macabre double-feature premiering at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Moore Hall’s Theatre-on-the-side. The show begins at the same time Friday and Saturday nights, and will wrap with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Martin and Freeman will be the only two performers on stage.

“Both are great actors,” said Jim Hickerson, coordinator of Marketing, Outreach and Education. “If anyone can pull off a two-person play, it would be them.”

For The Dumb Waiter, Martin and Freeman transform themselves into a pair of professional killers from the 1950s.

They find each other alone in a seemingly abandoned house, waiting for the identity of their next “hit” to be released.

Suddenly, a series of increasingly strange orders start arriving through a mysterious small elevator.

The audience is taken then to Sedona, Ariz., for the second half of the double feature “The Vortex,” a mystery written by Wade Sheeler.

Freeman plays an escaped gunman named Mark, who is running from his past. He meets a mysterious shaman played by Martin on top of a mesa.

Weaving two plays

Director Neil Vanderpool, chairman of the Communication and Dramatic Arts Department, said the two plays are connected through underlying messages. Each presents ideas such as reincarnation and facing your fate.

He said the feature will appeal to fans of movies such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Fight Club.”

“They are entirely different plays placed uniquely together,” Vanderpool said. “There’s mystery and there’s suspense.”

Both actors had to handle difficult language, adult content and violence for the play.

Martin and Freeman are roommates and had no problem getting into character. This will be the fifth CMU production they have been in together.

“I hope to gain a better understanding of this type of theater,” Martin said. “It’s been the most beneficial acting experience.”

Freeman also is excited.

“Now, I’m not nervous, but I probably will be when I go up,” Freeman said.

Directing two one-act plays is a completely new experience for Vanderpool.

He said he is excited to put it all together, but does not want to give too much away.

“There’s mystery and there’s suspense,” Vanderpool said.

The cost is $5 for students and seniors and $7 general admission.