LOFT

LOFT is back for its sixth year! This year's festival features four plays acted, directed, designed and built by students.Wednesday, December 2 at 7:00:Shorelines by Mishka Lavigne - directed by Laksh S. and Rohin S.CONTENT WARNINGS: language, mature themesA small military-occupied community sits, waiting, parched of natural water while nearby levees hold the rising global shoreline. Seventeen-year-old twins Alix and Evan pass the time in an empty, abandoned pool with what they are able to scavenge from the abandoned houses, while government official Portia returns to familiar places, her past colliding with the present. The planned evacuation notice that eventually reaches all cities has finally come, but the twins learn that survival is not guaranteed. As they rush to reach their grandmother, a retired journalist now living with dementia, her snippets of memories flow like humanity’s record player, skipping tracks before the final flood. Shorelines is about family and community in a world ravaged by climate change. It also speaks to the inevitable inequality of disaster response and how poorer communities are disproportionately affected by it.The Drowning Girls by Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vaskalic - directed by Corbin T. and Eva T.CONTENT WARNINGS: language, mature themes, murder/deathBessie, Alice, and Margaret have two things in common: they are married to George Joseph Smith, and they are dead. Surfacing from the bathtubs they were drowned in, the three breathless brides gather evidence against their womanizing, murderous husband by reliving the shocking events leading up to their deaths. Reflecting on the misconceptions of love, married life, and the not-so-happily ever after, The Drowning Girls is both a breathtaking fantasia and a social critique, full of rich images, a myriad of characters, and lyrical language.Thursday, December 3 at 7:00:Comment is Free by James Fritz - directed by Nitya A. and Elena W.CONTENT WARNINGS: language, mature themes, murderComment is Free is about a journalist caught up in a devastating media storm. An innovative look at internet culture intersecting - sometimes in deadly ways - with the modern political landscape.Hurricane Mona by Pippa Mackie - directed by Zaynah M. and Halyn O.CONTENT WARNINGS: strong language, mature themes, drug useIt’s not easy being green, especially for Mona, a diehard environmental activist sentenced to a year of house arrest for her topless vandalism at the Global Climate March. Exiled from her commune co-op, Mona is forced to serve her sentence back home with her well-meaning parents and annoyed younger sibling who just want to enjoy their coffee pods and Amazon packages in peace. But when Mona’s tyrannical green crusade engulfs the entire household, her family spirals into a hilarious and chaotic maelstrom of hypocrisy, guilt, and generational finger-pointing, ultimately asking themselves what’s more unbearable: an ecological collapse or each other? Hurricane Mona is an outrageous and arresting comedy about the collisions of Boomer complacency, Millennial disillusionment, and Gen Z apathy in the face of climate catastrophe. Complete with a giant talking frog, a psychedelic mushroom trip, and some hairy activism, Pippa Mackie’s riotous rallying cry delivers big laughs and even bigger questions about the mess we’re leaving behind and who’s left to clean it up.