“The Blonde and Other Slight Distractions” is an anthology of five short plays. Separately they all seem incongruent, drawn together only because the same person wrote all five of them, but they do go well together, and the Marshall Theatre took on the endeavor of making them work seamlessly for their fall icebreakers.

“I think that it’s because they’re so random that they go together,” junior Travis McKenna said.

Sophomore Madilyn Bechtel, the stage manager, added, “Originally, they were separate plays, and they were all award-winning plays. In this version, yes they were meant to be played together.”

The purpose of these fall icebreakers is to integrate the new theater students and to allow student directors to shine with their own short plays.

“Yes, we try to either have students direct an icebreaker right away to get folks involved, or last year we brought in a group and put something up in a week. We don’t want to wait until November to have a production. I think the directors did a good job in a short amount of time and I feel that the newcomers to the program got a great chance to get involved onstage and off right away,” Janet Gupton, associate professor of theatre arts and resident director, said in an email.

“It’s just pretty tough to do something in two weeks. That was the big challenge. [Having short plays] is easier. I find that I memorize everything quicker. I think there’s a little give and take with the timing of everything,” sophomore Murphy Jackson, who starred in “The Gate,” said.

The set was mismatch of objects hanging from the ceiling and lying on the floors. It was loosely based on a Candy Land theme.

“We were a little bit struggling [sic] with the scene set at the very beginning, but we decided to pull some distracting objects from our storage and have some levels (i.e. hanging objects from the ceiling, platforms) and the board-game-themed floor. The best part of the entire process of this play is a discussion. We, the directors, discussed a lot of things in such a short time. We sometimes discussed with professors. And I personally love discussing with actors to learn their own perspectives of the show. Every single things on stage has its meaning and good memories for us,” Kajita said in an email.

The plays had a lot of energy that continued on through all five. The first one, directed by senior Mariko Kajita, was “The Blonde,” a piece that began with a man sitting a woman, not blonde, on a chair, already gagged and bound. Eddie, played by freshman Benjamin Bartu, is the man that kidnapped Gloria, played by senior Kensie Sempert.

Quickly, the tables are turned as Gloria commands Eddie to finish the job, but Eddie doesn’t fully understand what Gloria means. He claims that he kidnapped her only to have someone to talk to. The play keeps moving in that direction with a twist at the end. The other four plays have their own crazy twists.

“The Blonde” was the most predictable after the first few minutes, but the characters, played wonderfully by the two actors, added a great amount of charm.

Senior Nicholas Granto directed the second play, “Thanksgetting.” The two characters in the play are Jim, played by junior Mic Cooney, and Allen, played by junior Cody Meadows. It’s a play about a restaurant owner who allows a homeless man to eat at his restaurant once a year. It turns out that they are brothers.

All of the plays contained no more than three characters each with deep stories. It was interesting to see just how much story a person could pack into each of these.

“Final Approach,” directed by Kajita, starred freshman Emma Coleman as Kate and sophomore Alyssa Lawrence as Stephanie.

“I liked the comedic aspect of it. One lover is really insecure about herself around her whole family. My lover Kate is trying to show me that she will love me no matter what. There are tender moments, and there are moments in which I’m just like, ‘Shut up. I don’t want to talk about it,’” Lawrence said.

Other major moments of entertainment during the whole show were the set changes. In last year’s production of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” they were amazing, and the theatre department kept up for these shows.

“[It’s about] collaboration with the actors and how as a whole it is made to seem seamless. If we just walk out there and make it boring, it doesn’t make any sense. If we act like a pawn on a chessboard or a piece in Candy Land, it makes it interesting, kind of like you’re playing a game,” Lawrence said.

Senior Daniel Bradley directed “Closure,” a short play about what looks like a break-up at a restaurant, complete with a waiter walking in at inopportune moments, but turns out to be something completely different. It starred sophomore Samantha West as Sara, sophomore Lukasz Augustine as Doug and junior Logan Mays as the waiter.

The other play Bradley directed was “One Last Time,” starring freshman Marcos Galvez as Allen and sophomore Parker Wells as James. It’s the story of Allen wanting to give a squirrel, who he saw as his only friend, a funeral and James’ attempt to understand how he can help.

Granato directed the last of the five plays, “The Gate.” Jackson acted as John; French language teaching assistant Camille Brunot acted as Mel and McKenna acted as the Devil.

In the play, John attempts to enter the gates of heaven, but there is “an asterisk” by his name, something keeping him out. As he argues with Mel, who is painting the gate, the Devil keeps trying to sneak in through the gate. It’s a humorous act, added to by the actors’ skill.

“The play itself is kind of random bits of people’s lives. It’s not an accident that the last scene of the play ends up with someone deciding between heaven and hell. For a lot of people, that’s it. That’s the end game. That’s the kind of questions that the playwright wants us to leave with, to understand the important of the play as a whole and not as singular scenes,” McKenna said.

It was a fitting end, just as hilarious and as full of story and meaning as any of the plays that came before it. Separately, each play had its own complete story, but together, they created something a lot bigger.