After months of work, Masquers club performs ‘Reckless’

The Masquers club theatre students are directing, producing and acting in the play “Reckless,” which will be open to the public and students on Oct. 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25.

The Masquers club nominates a play and director, as well as production crew. However, students do not need to be part of the Masquers club to work on the play.

This year the Masquers club nominated “Reckless” written by Craig Lucas.

The play follows Rachel, a wife and mother who must hide away from a hit-man that her husband hired on Christmas Eve. She finds two strangers, Lloyd and Pooty, to stay with and figure out what to do.

Lucas, who is living in upstate New York, has written over nine plays, including “Reckless”.

He is an active member in the theatre community in the U.S. He has also written two libretto’s for two operas. The libretto refers to the text of the opera and not the music according to the bio on the website “Playscripts.”

This year, senior Vanessa Agnes will direct the play. She nominated the play last spring with herself as director. Kendra Yarke, the lead actress of “Reckless,” said she and Agnes saw the play being done by another university group at the American College Theatre Festival held in Saginaw, Michigan.

As the director of the play, Agnes first ran auditions and casting for the show. She then had to show the actors and actresses what she wanted the play to look like.

Agnes also held the production meetings to make sure the play runs smoothly.

The biggest challenge that Agnes experienced as director were stu- dents who dropped out of the play. Since the auditions were held last spring, she had to do additional auditions during the fall at the beginning of the school year.

This will be Agnes’ directorial debut. She has a double major in theatre arts and communication studies. She is also a member of the Masquers club.

As the lead actress, Yarke saw this as an opportunity to act in a play that is considered darkly humorous.

Yarke personally considers this play to be a “roller coaster of emotions” compared to other plays that she had acted in.

The most challenging aspect of the role is how big it is, and how many lines that she has had to memorize.

Most of the students who are acting and producing in the play are part of Masquers. However, the club allows any UW-River Falls students to be part of a play that is run by students.

The Masquers club is open to anyone who wants to join. Yarke, who is also the president of Masquers, says that the main focus of the club is to “spread awareness of the theatre community on and off the campus."