During a recent weeknight play practice, Abbey Hardie was summoning a demon. She chanted and placed bones on the floor.
Hardie was playing Doctor Faustus, from a 16th century play by the same name. Faustus summoned the demon Mephistopheles, played by Orin Pierson. She gave an evil laugh at the demon’s approach.
“I charge thee to wait upon me whilst I live to do whatever Faustus shall command, be it to make the moon drop from her sphere or the ocean to overwhelm the world!” Hardie cried.
Hardie and Pierson were performing one of six scenes from six different plays that will be performed by members of the newly-formed Third Space Theater this weekend. Elsa Wintersteen is directing the performances alongside her husband, Matt, and high school student Quinn Rafferty.
The new group isn’t meant to compete with Petersburg’s longstanding theater troupe, the Mitkof Mummers. It was formed to give adult actors in the community even more opportunities. The tone of their performance is also different from the Mummers’ usual fare: this performance is mostly a drama, while the Mummers often perform comedies.
Wintersteen said the group name came out of the role theater has in the community.
“There’s the concept of ‘third space’, which is a space that people can get together in for free and just spend social time with one another,” she said. “And that’s what acting and rehearsing a play is.”
Wintersteen is the high school drama teacher, and said she’s wanted to direct community theater for a while. Her high schoolers traveled to Edinburgh this summer to perform their production of Dracula in the world’s largest theater festival. Wintersteen said, while she didn’t have enough energy to do a full play this fall, she wanted to produce something.
“It’s not uncommon in the theatrical world to do shows like this, where you have just samplings of scenes that are all united by a specific theme,” she said.
The scenes are organized into three meetings and three partings. Each scene has only two actors.
Hardie said it’s a unique opportunity.
“It’s built on dialog. You really have to keep everybody intrigued with the dialog, there’s not too many props and there’s not too much action going on,” she said.
Pierson said being able to work on a scene with just one other person is a special opportunity as an actor.
“It’s rich, for sure. We can pay close attention,” he said. “And to have this much time to work on one conversation, it’s been really satisfying.”
And Pierson said the role of a demon has fit him well.
“Unfortunately, this is great casting,” he laughed. “It’s come very naturally to me.”
Not every scene is spooky — Petersburg High School alum Zane Browning and senior Rebecca Midkiff will perform a scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Midkiff says it’s a performance that’s meant to be watched, not read.
“It’s meant to be performed, and especially when we’re so far removed from the language,” she said. “It’s really hard to actually understand it if you’re not watching it.”
Plus, the two are dating in real life. They said it adds a unique dynamic to their performance.
Pairs will also perform scenes from The Importance of Being Earnest, Proof, Death of a Salesman, and A Doll’s House.
Wintersteen said she hopes that audiences will enjoy the evening’s variety.
“By no means do we have all of the theatrical canon represented here, but I think the audience will be excited to see some different things that maybe they haven’t seen before,” she said.
Wintersteen said the performances will contain some swear words, and that it is likely a show for those 12 and older.
A Night at the Theater has performances Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 at the Wright Auditorium. Tickets are $10, and the show starts at 7 p.m.
