This weekend two local high schools perform their annual fall plays. One is a historical dramedy taking place during the 1989 fall of communism in Germany, while the other is a crazy comedy that takes place on a street corner. Both are sure to entertain audiences.

Whitewater High School Theatre presents “Full Circle” by Charles Mee tonight and tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Whitewater High School auditorium.

The foundation text for Charles Mee’s “Full Circle” is Bertolt Brecht's “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” which took its plot line from the ancient Chinese legend of the chalk circle, its 1925 stage adaptation by the German poet Klabund and the Bible’s story of King Solomon. Mee changes the characters and updates the situation for “Full Circle,” still appropriating Brechtian techniques and themes but in a recycling of popular culture. Whereas Brecht's play celebrates the birth of Communism, Mee's considers, with a more jaundiced eye, its demise. “Full Circle” is a play about the collapse of communism, the questionable triumph of capitalism and the necessity for a third option for humanity, love.

The action begins in 1989 in East Berlin at a command performance of the Berliner Ensemble. When the German revolution spills into the theater to announce the fall of the Berlin Wall, the aged head of the German Democratic Republic, Erich Honecker, and his young wife take flight. They abandon their baby to a wealthy American tourist and a student radical who happen to be at the theatre. Soon a pair of guards identify the baby as Honecker's and they engage in a helter-skelter chase across the rioting country to reclaim the baby. The play comes full circle when Müller, now an enemy of the people, is called upon as judge to determine the baby's true and rightful mother. Eventually, both biological and adopted parents must fight it out in the famous chalk circle.

Filled with historic, literary and artistic allusions as a Cold War historical dramedy, “Full Circle” incorporates passages from Mee’s wide range of reading and research, drawing snippets from the writings of Warren Buffett, Katharine Graham, Andy Warhol, Georges Bataille, Klaus Theweleit as well as American pop culture in music and TV.

The play is directed by Catherine Jones, and includes a cast of over 20 drama students. Tickets can be purchased for $7 at the door.

McIntosh High School Advanced Drama presents the one-act play “The Swimmer” by F. Xavier Hogan.

This absurdist comedy presents the story of a young man on a street corner who is convinced he is drowning even though there is no water in the vicinity. Each person who passes by becomes somehow involved in the situation, but each is more interested in promoting his own point of view than helping the man. One woman calls him a bore; a policeman writes him a ticket; a business man throws him a quarter. Will any of the unique characters he encounters throw him a life preserver, or even some hope?

On Saturday, October 29, the show will be presented with a wild and crazy improv competition presented in the tradition of the popular television show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” The play will also be performed tonight with no pre-show. All performances start at 7 p.m, and tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults.

In addition to the production, the drama department will be collecting non-perishable food items for their community service project, in association with the International Thespian Society, "Trick or Treat so Kids Can Eat." This worthy cause is a food drive benefiting The Real Life Center, a non-profit social service organization in Fayette County, which provides a food pantry and other benefits such as career counseling and a clothes closet to help those in need. Patrons attending tonight’s performance can receive $1 off ticket prices for bringing non-perishable food items to the show. Donations will also be accepted through November 3 by Drama director Michelle Stone at McIntosh High School. For more information call 770-631-3232.

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