The theater, the theater, what’s happened to the theater? Even though Danny Kaye in “White Christmas” doesn’t know, I do. It’s strong and thriving. Northwest Vista College just had a magical two weeks of theater. We performed short plays written by five local play wrights. Yes, for full disclosure I admit performing in one of the plays. If you attended any of the shows, you would know me by the line “There is magic in the world.”

All plays were set in a diner. The diner was odd because in one play it would fade and exhibit magical qualities. In another, it was similar to a bus station for dead people waiting to get on with the afterlife, and for the other three it was set in various parts of Texas. Though the diner was interesting to watch change during the shows, the people who inhabited the diner during were far more varied and colorful than any change seen in the diner.

There’s a diner owner who’s allergic to cedars in a town where a big cedar festival is held, and he gets threatened with a pitchfork by the Dad of the heroine. There’s a control-freak daughter looking for her crazy mother. There’s the dancing sexpert with the “white-as-Kraft-mayo” couple. To fill out the ensemble there are the troop of dead people waiting for something to happen, and the lost souls who finally find what they need.

If you missed the event make sure you show up for the next event. Check it all out at:

www.alamo.edu/nvc/PalmettoCalendar/

By NVC Student Peter Northrop