Though all electronic devices were silenced during the show, it did not stop the performers from whipping out their cell phones on stage in PHS’s production of Dead Man’s Cell Phone, which opened on Friday, March 14. The play mixed modern media with a vintage feel to create an experience that both entertained and stirred the audience.

The play opened with the ring of a man’s cell phone in a deserted café. The only other person there was a woman named Jean (senior Talia Purnell) who, after asking the man to answer the phone and receiving no response, decided to answer it for him. Jean soon became swept up into the intriguing life of the man whom she will learn is named Gordon (junior Robbie Diaz). The play included performances by juniors Amy Kelleher, David Ehrlich, Tatum Burnett, and Cecilia Soghikian, as well as a “Cell Phone Ballet”, some cacti, and numerous umbrellas.

Director Kim Taylor wrote in the play’s program that she loves this play because it asks great questions such as “How do we remember the dead?”, “Does technology serve to unite us or isolate us?” and “How much could people learn about you if they started answering your calls?” Throughout the play, the scenes explore these ideas, while inserting wild humor and equally wild characters.

“It was amazing, better than any of our rehearsals, and I think people really loved it. I really got into my character, more than any of the other times,” Diaz said.

Diaz said  he prepared for the performance by changing the way he said his lines every time he rehearsed.

“I looked over my script a lot, just to make sure I knew what my character was saying and why he was saying it,” Diaz said. “And I played with a lot of different ways to say certain phrases.”

After the show, Ehrlich said that he had not expected the standing ovation, and was happy that people seemed to really like it.

“Everyone’s been working so hard and getting a very small amount of sleep,” Ehrlich said. “But when we came to the show everyone was so amped to perform that we had more energy than we’ve ever had and we had a great performance.”

Ehrlich plays the character of Dwight, Gordon’s downtrodden brother.

“I had to find the certain parts of me that are like my character and just try to show that side of who I am,” Ehrlich said. “And that other side of me that isn’t like Dwight, I just shut that out. I blasted music in the car on the way to the show to get that side out of me so I could just be Dwight when I came into the theater.”

Sam Berris who attends University of Pacific and was in the audience during Friday night’s performance said that he thought it was a very well done play.

“All the acting was really top notch,” Berris said. “There were a lot of elements that, if they had been acted poorly, could not have been portrayed to the audience like they were tonight and I really appreciated that. Not many plays go into the afterlife and I think that’s something really unique about this show.”

Published in 1603 by William Shakespeare, Hamlet has long been a play worth seeing, and that is no exception to Piedmont’s acting class’s performances.

Astounding actors from the acting department such as Wes Dunlap (Young Hamlet), Becca Havian (Gertrude), and Zane Haney (Claudius) all play key roles in replicating Shakespeare’s work of art. The play lasts about two hours with a 10 minute intermission that builds suspense for the dramatic production.

However, just as always, the acting department is able to add their own, unique touch to the play to make it theirs. Intertwining a series of deftly placed jokes and humorous characters creates a lighter mood in the audience and generates a connection to certain characters in the play that normally would not have happened. In only two hours the audience is taken on an emotional roller-coaster as they watch the skillful acting department of PHS recreate one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays.