​Three performances open May 15

(Orange, CA)—Santiago Canyon College (SCC) Performing Arts Department presents a Spring One Act Festival, the college’s first theatre production in 17 years. Check Please & Other Dating Adventures features three one-act plays. The plays include: Check Please by Jonathan Rand, It’s Not You, It’s Me by Don Zolidis, and Sixty Second Singles by Jon Jory.

Rand’s Check Please is a series of vignettes exploring bad first dates, whether the date happens to be a raging kleptomaniac, your grandmother’s bridge partner or a mime. The play follows a series of blind dinner dates that couldn’t get any worse until they do. Rand is an American writer whose plays have been performed over 16,000 times in all 50 states and in 54 countries.

Zolidis’ It’s Not You, It’s Me is a series of humorous breakups. The play uses comedy to explore the painful art of breaking up and spotlights awkwardly realistic characters in wildly hilarious scenes. The playwright Zolidis has published 44 plays which have been produced over 3,000 times in 31 countries.

Jory’s Sixty Second Singles, a semi-reality television show, features randomly selected couples that go on speed dates with only one minute to decide if they are compatible. One couple includes a girl who insists on wearing her school’s bear mascot uniform everywhere until the end of the football season. Besides being a playwright, Jory is known as theatrical director who was instrumental in the development of Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Check Please & Other Dating Adventures will have three performances beginning Friday, May 15 at 8:00 p.m. at Santiago Canyon College, Drama Theatre Lab, D-121, 8045 E. Chapman Ave., Orange, CA 92869. Remaining performances are scheduled for Saturday, May 16 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, May 17 at 4:00 p.m. Adult admission is $10 and $7 for staff and students.

SCC adjunct theatre instructor Christine Cummings directs Check Please & Other Dating Adventures. “I wanted to choose three hilarious comedies with a common theme, and considering the prevalence of this Match.com cyber romance generation, dating seemed quite apropos,” said Cummings. “Anyone who has been on a ‘story-worthy’ first date, suffered the pangs of a breakup, or enjoyed the exciting butterflies of a new romantic crush will relate to these zany, at times bizarre, and always lovable characters. This is a true labor of love for us all.”

All performers and production staff are SCC students. Student cast members, who play a total of 97 characters, include:

Dasia Beckton, Orange

Nick Broome, Yorba Linda

Chelsey Kay Buchbinder, Riverside

Efrain Duran, Orange

Noland Eldeek, Santa Monica

Laura Red Elk, Santa Ana

Breanne Figueroa-Colton, Orange

Bree Fowler, Fullerton

Lesley Gonzalez, Orange

Olivia Victoria Grechuta, Anaheim Hills

Robbie King, Orange

Denise Landon, Orange

James McGuine, Orange

Kasey Muise, Tustin

Marjon Parsi, Mission Viejo

Tomas Plasencia, Anaheim Hills

Aaron Rodriguez, Orange

Stephan Romero, Orange

Alexis Sii, Compton

Zoe-Raven Stevens, Orange

Amanda Stone, Orange

Mariah Tonkinson, Norco

Touba Zaidi, Orange

Cummings is a director, actress and adjunct professor of theatre. As a stage director, she has directed multiple productions in Illinois and California including Blithe Spirit at Mt. San Antonio College, Matrimonial Mayhem with The Laguna Playhouse’s Youth Theatre, Pride’s Crossing at Elmhurst College where she received Best Director honors, Tartuffe at Aurora University, Crimes of the Heart at Illinois Central College, as well as the musicals Hello Dolly! and Once Upon a Mattress. As an actor, Cummings has performed in regional theatre in the Chicago area and in Orange County.

For more information, visit www.sccollege.edu/Departments/PerformingArts or call (714) 628-4839. Tickets are available at the SCC Campus Bookstore and Cashier’s Office and at the door as long as seats remain available. Seating is limited. This performance is not suitable for children under the age of 12.

About Santiago Canyon College
Santiago Canyon College (SCC) serves about 14,000 students each semester. The college prepares students for transfer to four-year institutions and careers, and provides courses for personal and professional development, as well as customized training for business and industry. The college is recognized for its adult education program which keeps the working adult—and senior—in mind by offering flexible schedules, and community locations. Serving the residents of Anaheim Hills, Orange, Tustin, and Villa Park, SCC is one of two comprehensive colleges under the auspices of the Rancho Santiago Community College District. Visit www.sccollege.edu  to learn more.

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