By Setota Hailemariam

“I miss you,” Diamond Fisher wistfully intoned before the crowd gathered in the Cafritz Foundation Theatre in The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center the night of May 8.

The junior theatre major was playing the role of a young woman reminiscing about a former lover with alcoholism. As she monologued about their failed relationship, about how he left her and how she knows nothing about how he’s doing now, she sorrowfully turned over the one-month-sober Alcoholics Anonymous chip he had given her in the past. Then, to the surprise of the audience, her ex-boyfriend appeared, knocking on her door, stepping inside her room, announcing his months-long sobriety and professing his love for her.

It turned out that he was simply a figment of her imagination — a revelation that the audience did not see coming, judging from their gasps and outcries.

The short play, called “The Blue Days of Winter” and directed by student Margot Trouve, was the first of five plays performed in The Weekday Players’ Original Works Project, an event occurring every semester hosted by the Players.

Hailing themselves as “the premier student-run theatre company at the University of Maryland” on their Twitter account, the group produced the plays that were performed that night after putting out an open call for submissions.

The works that were featured included comedies as well as traditional dramas. “Subtext,” written by Whitney Geohagan, was a look into a typical quarrelsome couple’s relationship. There was the stereotypical crazy girlfriend accusing her boyfriend of cheating and the oblivious boyfriend who couldn’t for the life of him figure out what she was mad about. The actors who played the caricatures made sure to emphasize the play’s title, and packed a considerable amount of expressive body language and facial cues into its runtime of nearly 10 minutes.

Katie Gallagher, the artistic director of The Weekday Players, said her job involves securing directors and playwrights for the performance.

“Most of the time, people are more than willing to be involved, because it’s what they love to do, and it’s what they want to do with their lives,” she said.

“Every single day, we contributed towards this, and it was just a really long and nice and rewarding process,” Fisher said, who had rehearsed almost every day for the last week.

“It was nice to definitely bring someone’s vision to life.”

Featured Photo Credit: Trehana  Riley and Jada Bouroughs play a mother and daughter in the play “101,” written by Agyeiwaa Asante (Setota Hailemariam/ Bloc Reporter).

Setota Hailemariam is a sophomore journalism major and can be reached at setotah98@gmail.com.