By: Annie Hart

Last night, Jan 22nd, at 11 p.m., members of the student group Playwrights gave a riveting performance of a short play called ” Fast, Ugly, and F***ed Up.

It was written by Daniel Bush, directed by Avery Sedlichek, and starred Kyle Mangold as Reggie and Esai Siddeeq as Clifford. With Richard Colley as Clifford’s rival.

The purpose of the showing was to fundraise for the cast, writer, and director to go to New York City to perform their play.

The suggested donation amount is $3.00 and donations are still being accepted via Venmo to @daniel-bush-5.

The play has been accepted into Winterfest, a Playwrights festival in New York City. Fast, Ugly, and F***ed Up will be performed Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, the link to the festival page is provided here:

http://newyorktheaterfestival.com/fast-ugly-and-fucked-up/.

On the website, the play is described as:

“Two lifelong friends: Clifford and Reggie, both live in a world that seems to refuse to let them succeed. After Clifford is tripped by a bitter rival in the final track race of his high school career, they meet up in the place where their friendship first started, using their love for one another to face life’s shortcomings.”

Writer, Daniel Bush, told the audience that he had rewritten all of or parts of the play around 3 times.

Director, Avery Sedlichek, said this was the most challenging piece he’s done as a director. He also said himself, the writer, and the actors locked themselves in Glaize Studio Theater for about 4 hours the day before to perfect their piece.

That dedication payed off.

While it was only 15 minutes, this play challenged the audience to feel. It examines and challenges the norms of masculinity and male friendships.

The two actors, Kyle Mangold and Esai Siddeeq, made their interaction feel real. As if I was evesdropping on a conversation I shouldn’t have heard.

There were pauses, jokes, screaming at each other, then hard jumps back into a serious conversation. Even through all the emotional twists, it all made sense, and is really how humans interact.

The two spoke about a teacher’s breasts, and then catapulted into a conversation on barbeque Fritos, and then launched into a moment where Reggie (Kyle Mangold) spoke about feeling like a worm in a ball of other worms, trying to get out.

It was phenomenal.

A show that started off with the aftermath of the physical emotional outburst of Clifford (Esai Siddeeq) beating up Richard Colley’s character and being followed by Reggie (Kyle Mangold), evolved into two old friends exchanging “I love you”s several times, speaking about their emotions, and passionately embracing.

All actions society would look upon as emmasculating. But in this play, it examines how displaying emotions is brave even though it can have its consequences.

I wish this show was longer. I could sit in the world Daniel Bush created for hours.