During the 9^th, 10^th, and 11^th, the plays Emotional Baggage and I Can Carry It were performed by Towson’s very own theatre club. The play Emotional Baggage was about a group of people in a train station who are all carrying their ‘emotional baggage’. We saw 9 characters go throughout the play trying to get rid of their baggage and 1 show them that they don’t need to hold on to it. I Can Carry It is a student devised play, meaning a group of students wrote and directed it, about a group of students in detention who share what got them into detention but also their personal stories. We see these students speak up about their stories and those stories unfold, friendships form, and problems solve.

Emotional Baggage is a unique play because it has no dialogue; it’s focused on non-verbal actions to tell the story. Telling the story without being able to say anything is no easy task, but this cast did an excellent job conveying that story. The cast was able to use their bodies and actions to show what their characters were feeling and thinking. For example, the character casted as Insecure About Looks was able to convey her insecurities by hiding behind her magazine as well as ripping out pages from the magazine. Not only did the cast perform excellently, so did the music and lighting. Each individual character had a song that was played when they came on, and this really conveyed the nature of their persona and also it made the play more entertaining. Also, the lighting was really important, like the soundtrack each character had, they also had a color. All of the factors that went into making this play were effective in making it enjoyable to watch and portraying a captivating story.

I Can Carry It was all student-devised, meaning students had the responsibility of directing, writing, making the set, everything that goes into a play relied on the students, and they did a fantastic job. The dialogue between the characters was really entertaining and the cast did a great job interacting with each other and having the conversations flow naturally. The play had really good character development and really funny lines.

This play did involve talking and since due to Covid safety guidelines, the actors had to wear masks; hearing was difficult at times but other than that the play was awesome. Looking forward to the next play the theatre students put on!