Staff Writer Mary Qiu attended CU Players’ ‘Hocus Pocus Showcus Live: a Spooktacular Halloween Cabaret!’ that took place on Friday, October 30. This showcase featured several short performances, each full of spunk, and a preview of the upcoming production of Radio Island, which will run from November 19-21 at 7:30 pm EST.

It was an intimate Zoom of around 20 people. The audience was asked to turn their cameras and microphones on, if possible. I admit that, after months of Zoom, my heart has become cold and for a moment, I considered staying a black square on the screen. Yet, I am no cold-hearted monster (though I wish I dressed up as one!), and I turned on my camera.

The showcase featured Harris Solomon (CC ‘22) who performed “Werewolf Bat Mitzvah” from 30 Rock, Sal Volpe (CC ‘21) and Mario Garcia (CC ‘21) who performed a self-written scene as a mother-son duo, Wesley Schmidt (CC ‘22) who sung “Halloween” from Be More Chill, and a preview from the cast of the upcoming Radio Island.

Harris Solomon’s energetic performance compelled me to search up “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” after the showcase because I couldn’t get enough of “boys becoming men/ men becoming wolves.” Sal Volpe pulled off a beautiful ginger wig, and the writing was packed with absurdity and humor. Wesley Schmidt rocked the swaggiest leather jacket and brought the most vivacious vocals I have encountered on Zoom.

The preview of Radio Island, directed by Emily Gometz (CC ’21) , features a scene between Ellen (MoniQue Rangell-Onwueg CC ’22) and her mother Paula (Sydney Gerlach BC ‘24). The Chorus (Andie Chen CC ’21) and Octavio Vourvouilas CC ’24) occupies two more videos that highlight the actions and props that Ellen and Paula are supposed to be performing. When the narrator (Emily Zhang CC ’21) tells us that Paula is putting away her phone, we see Paula going to hang her phone in one box and a calculator— a stand-in for phone— being hung on another video screen at the same time. 

I think the choice of utilizing multiple perspectives brings an eerie meta-ness and an otherworldliness to this domestic scene, especially when the character and the Chorus’s actions sync up perfectly. At times, though, I did feel like the perspectives of the props were unnecessary and would have preferred to see the actors take up the whole screen. I am looking forward to seeing how the Chorus and use of video perspectives play out in the final performance.

It was evident that the performers of the showcase were enjoying themselves, and in turn, I found myself having a great time and laughing a bunch too. With the heavy narration, Radio Island is great choice for virtual adaptation since and the preview convinces me that I will see a play that experiments with novel approaches to Zoom theatre on the weekend of November 19-21 at 7:30 pm EST. 

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