Cupid's Arrow - 10th Anniversary

Following the success of our Summer `96 production of BARN OF THOUGHT,the Down South Independent Theatre Company returned to the stage the following winter to stage my second play, CUPID'S ARROW. This time with me in the director's chair as well. The cast included six members of the BARN OF THOUGHT cast as well as some new faces. CUPID'S ARROW doesn't tell much of a story, instead it's really a handful of skits supposedly all sharing the theme of love and romance. The skits are held together with a conversation between Cupid (Kevin McCrum) the god of love and Mars (Keith Mack) the god of war. It seems Cupid is quite the jokester, and illustrates for Mars the different ways he makes love fail. Along the way we meet Michael (Brian Kaiser) and Heather (Terri McHargue), a couple who's relationship has come to and end and then takes a very weird turn. We also meet a young cheerleader named Sally (Sara Nunally) who gets her heart broken by Jake (Brendan P. Hines) the coolest guy in school when he chooses the class flirt Slutty Bumpkins (Joy Watkins) over her. There's a ridiculous scene where Benjamin Franklin (played by me) accidentally kills his wife Deborah (Carey Dillon) during his famous kite experiment. We also had a scene that was a parody of the Michelle Pfeiffer movie DANGEROUS MINDS, where the teacher (Ariel Tucker) and one of her students (Gareth Kelly) just start getting it on on her desk after being struck by Cupid's Arrow.

The last two scenes in the play were a little more down to earth. One involved a guy (Brian Kaiser) having cyber-sex with a girl who ends up being his sister and the other was my lame attempt to be a little serious and romantic and end the show with a cute little skit about a nice guy (Gareth Kelly) winning the heart of a jock's girlfriend (Joy Watkins.) Then any actual sentiment I was able to work up was all tossed out the window for the final scene which was a musical number, just for the sake of having a musical number because I think all plays (and movies) should end with a good musical number.

The show was about an hour and 15 minutes long with no intermission. It was well received as people knew coming in that they weren't getting Shakespeare. Our scheduled short run of four shows was snipped to three when we cancelled the last show due to snow, but once again we all had a good time working on the show and pulling the whole thing off.


Those were great times, working with so many talented and fun people. It was alot of work directing my first play while also playing two roles in it but luckily in the second scene I was in one of my props was a magazine that I was holding. I ended up taping the script for the scene in the magazine and never really learning my lines, but with help I pulled it off.

One of the very talented people involved with the Down South Independent Theatre Company was Jen Wadford, who had worked on BARN OF THOUGHT and a sketch comedy show we had done years earlier called SUDS. Jen made costumes and props and kept everything together while the rest of us were trying to show off on stage. We also got alot of help and support from Catonsville Community College, where we produced the shows. Not only did they let us use the theatre for free, the drama department helped us out with lighting and other equipment for the theatre. Like I said, it was really a collaborative effort.

Here's a picture of all the females in the cast taken one night after a performance. The back row is: Terri McHargue, Carey Dillon in her musical number outfit, Julie DiPanfilo as the goddess Vesta, and Joy Watkins as Dawn. The bottom row is Ariel Tucker as Mrs. Johnson, Laura Keller as student #3 and Tammy Coffinberger as student #4.

The Down South Independent Theatre Company story continues this summer with the 10th Anniversary of our full-blown musical extravaganza SUNBURNED!