Opening night for Endgame and Other Short Plays by Samuel Beckett was Thursday night. The play, directed by Amy Seham, will continue to run through this weekend.

“It is a series of plays although the main one is Endgame,” Seham said. “We also are including a number of short plays by Beckett, those are really cool because in a shorter format he can do even more outrageous and interesting things.”

The short plays vary in length, some being only ten minutes long, and showcase other aspects of Beckett’s work. The short plays will take place before intermission then Endgame, which is a One Act Play, will be performed after intermission.

Every alternating night will feature different short plays, some Thursday and Saturday while others are Friday and Sunday. Each of the short plays stand alone, Act Without Words II is not a sequel to Act Without Words I.

First-year Theatre major Gabe Berg performs as Act Without Words II player A.

“The pure physicality of the role and having to act only through your body is really difficult,” Berg said. “The fact that I get carried around in a bag for half the show is super interesting and working with TJ is the best. The play is funny and we’re really good at what we do. It’s very dope.”

The actors are taking a class on Beckett and absurdist theater with the play being their project. Beckett’s theater of the absurd plays challenge the actors to grow in order to successfully portray the difficult material.

“It can be serious but then all of a sudden be very funny. That is Beckett playing with how our lives are sometimes sad, sometimes comedic, and sometimes don’t really make perfect sense. In some ways, to do theater that reflects that is truer than something that is all tidy and wrapped up with a happy ending,” Seham said. “Thinking about it is intense and then performing it is really about being entertaining and how do we get people both to think about it and to laugh about it. It’s very challenging.”

Junior Sylvia Michels has been involved in several plays each year during her time at Gustavus.

“I play the mouth in Not I. It’s very challenging, the text is hard and fast so I’ve grown a lot as a performer,” Michels said. “There are a lot of different shows with different themes in one evening, you get to see a lot of short plays with different topics and good talent instead of the usual one show. If you want to read something before coming, reading something on existentialism. Everybody should go so, there is no excuse because students get free tickets.”

Beckett’s best known play may be Waiting for Godot, but Endgame was said to be Beckett’s favorite play he wrote.

“It followed Waiting for Godot and has some of the similar characters but in this case they are not waiting on the roadside they are in a post-apocalyptic scenario where the end is near,” Seham said.

There are four actors in Endgame, including Senior Thomas Buan whose performance as Hamm is his project for his Honors Theatre major. Buan, along with Junior Sam Keillor, Junior Chase Adelsman, and First-year Grace Love will bring life to  Endgame every night.

“There is excellent acting that is thought provoking and intriguing. The play makes you look at the absurdities of life and is very different from anything you may have seen,” Seham said. “There is original music, excellent design, a lot of great stage management and backstage crew.”

First-year Julia Kugler is the hair and makeup head for the play and utilized YouTube to learn how to make and apply bald caps.

“I’ve been working on the wigs and the bald caps used in the play. They are built with patience. We ordered a latex bald cap then dyed and glued the hair to the head and matched it to the actor’s skin tone,” Kugler said. “The makeup is going to be amazing. The play is interesting and the actors are really good, they put a lot of effort into this.”

The actors have bonded through the class and working to put on the play.

“This is a wonderful group of people that I enjoy working with every single day, and I love every single one of them and they make me so happy,” Berg said.

Catch the show tonight or tomorrow at 8 p.m. or the matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Anderson Theater.