Actor Gordon Forrest put a cup of grape juice to his lips and swallowed. Then, the poison took hold. Forrest, or rather teen Sam Allen, stumbled back and forth across the stage before collapsing in a heap, dead.
Allen wasn’t actually dead. It was an elaborate play performed by All Saints Youth Ministry in conjunction with Upper Room Theatre Ministry in Manassas. “Three Doors to Death: Or, The Choice Is Yours” was one of six, one-act plays performed by parish youth ministries from across the diocese at the annual Diocesan One-Act Play and Film Festival at Nativity Catholic Church in Burke Feb. 7.
In “Three Doors to Death,” Detective Woolrich, played by Mariana Bingham, investigates the murder and elicits audience responses, guiding the play along.
“What else should we be looking for? Motive, or how the murder was committed?” she asked the audience. “Motive!” they clamored. By the end of the play, the audience had “selected” cleaning woman Dolly Bray (Cailyn Workman) as the prime suspect. Dolly gave a dramatic monologue before being placed in handcuffs.
Several of the festival’s plays featured original writing. Teen Patrick Argauer wrote and composed a musical performance, “The Guardian Angel,” performed by Our Lady of Good Counsel Youth Ministries in Vienna.
The play depicts the Biblical story of Tobit. Tobit’s son, Tobiah (Argauer), is guided by the angel Raphael (Abby Cramer) to the town of Media to marry Sarah (Charlotte Aloisi). Sarah is haunted by the demon Asmodeus (Peter Francese), who has murdered all seven of her previous husbands on the wedding night. The play contains comedic elements as well as musical: Tobiah wrestles with a mighty clownfish (Emmett Sanderson), while Sarah’s father, Raguel (Kennedy Turner), delivers lines with a dramatic, hippie vibe.
The festival welcomed newcomer parishes to the stage. Holy Family Church in Dale City delivered a romantic comedy, “Why We Like Love Stories,” in which four teens navigate complicated — and comical — love lives over the course of their high school years.
One tear-jerking performance featured a youth minister’s baby daughter. “Remember When,” written by Bethany Rogers, youth minister at St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton, depicts three daughters navigating adult life and the Christmas season with their widowed mom (Rachel Mondarez), both before and after her death. Baby Cecilia Rogers makes an appearance in Scene 2 after the oldest daughter, Isabel (Antonella Foschi), gives “birth.”
Holy Trinity Church Youth Ministries in Gainesville boasted the largest parish cast of 15 in the comedy, “Um, I Think the Psych Teacher is Dead.” A group of high school seniors preparing to take a psych final finds their psych teacher “dead” at his desk. With the doors locked and their phones confiscated, the situation swiftly devolves into dysfunction. Amid the chaos, one student (Bridget Loin) leaps atop a desk clutching a dagger, her face smeared with war paint.
Nativity Players Theatre Ministry capped off the festival with, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Play.” Narrator Madeline Hodges described the process of putting on a “bad play.” From cringey auditions to over-the-top vocal exercises to a vengeful stage manager, the narrator walks the audience through everything that could go wrong behind the scenes. Musical theatre veterans may appreciate a brief scene in which actors gather for a “Small Role Support Group,” in which they chant, “There are no small roles, only small actors,” in between bursting into tears over their single-liners.
The festival also featured four short films created by youths from Nativity and Holy Trinity youth ministries. At the end of the performances, each parish is assigned another parish to provide feedback on their performance.
While six parishes participated in this year’s festival, more may join next year. Youth ministers Margaret Haislmaier of St. Philip Church in Falls Church and Jonathan Rosato of St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax came to scope out the festival for their ministries.
Organizer Barbara Schwartz has been involved with the festival since 2016. She said that in decades past, similar festivals were held in surrounding dioceses. “In the late 1980s, as a young (master’s in fine arts) candidate at Catholic University’s theatre department, I was hired by a parish in Maryland to direct the festival. The day was amazing, with many, many parishes participating throughout the DMV,” she said. Today, the Arlington festival is one of the few festivals remaining. “It stands as a living remnant of a once-widespread Catholic theatre movement that emphasized storytelling, collaboration and artistic expression,” Schwartz added.
For the teen actors, the festival is a celebration of the arts. “I just think it’s so cool seeing all the teens here,” said Thérèse Albrigo of All Saints. “We’re all supporting each other.”
Argauer, who wrote “The Guardian Angel” for Our Lady of Good Counsel, said that the inspiration from the play came from the encouragement of youth minister Carmen Clem. “I’ve tried to write plays before, and they haven’t all worked out, so I thought this would be a cool way to facilitate that experiment,” he said. “Everything we do is just derived from God’s creation, and then we can participate in that creative use of our minds.”
“I try to remember before I go on stage that this is a gift for the Lord,” said St. Andrew teen Antonella Foschi. “And just knowing that he’s also an audience member, watching and cheering.”
