Bridgewater, Va. – Student Night at the theatre on Feb.18 featured two short plays, together titled “Blue Heart”. Both productions explored the ways that people convey the things they want to say and the difficulties of communicating.

The show opened with “Heart’s Desire” in which the same scene was repeated as each character struggled to make it perfect. “Because the scene was so repetitive, memorizing was’t hard, but keeping things in order was… You mess up one thing, you mess up everything,” said junior Elizabeth Gaver, who performed in both of the short plays.

Ernie the Eagle made a guest appearance in one of the repetitions of “Heart’s Desire”. “Because it repeats so often, you have to work to remember what repeat you’re on,” said senior C. J. Allen who played Lewis.

In the second play, “Blue Kettle”, the lines continued to deteriorate until the characters were left to convey their thoughts and emotions without being able to speak properly. “Memorizing the lines was a doozy,” said senior Kai Bowman who played Derek.

After the performance, the cast lined up across the stage to answer questions from the audience. “[My favorite part was] definitely the cast. They’re all amazing,” said senior Kylee Lorio, the assistant director.

The event ended with a reception where people could talk to the cast and crew. “The hardest part [about preparing for the show] was managing my schedule,” said first-year Alison Nickels, who played Young Woman in “Heart’s Desire”, while standing with junior Joseph Wampler.

The cast mingled with students and guests as the provided food quickly disappeared. “I’ve never done a show like this before and it was really fun,” said Bowman.

Cast members were busy before and during the show, including Allen, Nickels and sophomore Mateo Tucker who rearranged the sets between productions, and the handful of cast members with a role in both. “Four of the cast members came on with two weeks to show date,” said Lorio.

Gaver played a major role in both stories, as Maisie in “Heart’s Desire” and Enid in “Blue Kettle”. “I loved working on understanding the characters. They’re two very distinct characters, and both are very interesting,” said Gaver.