Though the Festival of Shorts is a long-standing wwudrama tradition, it has begun to take on exciting new changes. Last year, the program debuted a new performance style, resembling popular sketch comedy shows, and this year it hosted its first writing team, made up of students and professors from all over campus.
David Lennox, dean of the School of Business, served as this year’s host and helped with many of the play’s comedic opening, closing, and transitional pieces. Alyssa Brown, student producer, said, “the hope is to provide faculty and staff with just as much space to express themselves as the students have in a joint effort.”
Festival of Shorts: Once Upon a Walla featured three sketches. The first, "Happily Never After,” was written over a decade ago by WWU alum Shane Wood. It was directed and adapted by current student Courtney Easterbrook, who also functioned as the show’s assistant student producer. The sketch took the audience into several therapy sessions with a fairytale therapist, his assistant, and three other “clients”: the Charmings, the Big Bad Wolf, and Gold-E-Loxxx—each with unique and hilarious stories to tell after their supposed “happily ever after.”
The second sketch, “Jack of Too Many Trades,” was written by a community member, Russell Skorina, and directed by current student Elizabeth Blackwelder. It featured a character named Jack and a very controlling narrator who was trying to force Jack into too many famous “Jack” storylines (i.e., Jack and Jill, Jack from Titanic, etc.). “The humor in this piece keeps you on your toes as too many worlds collide,” said Brown.
The final sketch, “The Sword’s Still in the Stone,” was co-written by current students Ella Dodge, Lauren Ellis, and Ashton Ellis, and directed by Lauren Ellis. This piece played with the story of Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone with an unfortunate mishap, a disappointed Merlin, a baffled Herrald, and “alarmingly articulate” hecklers.
“We wanted to create a show that makes theater tangible for those on campus to engage with, whether that was acting, writing, behind the scenes crew, or being an audience member. Theater has the power to bring people together, and comedy takes it a step further and bonds those with a common sense of joy,” said Brown.
Brown realized many students and faculty can’t commit to a full-length production, but Festival of Shorts provides an opportunity for them to still participate. This year, she was excited to announce, “the majority of our cast had never participated in a wwudrama production before and represented all different corners of our campus!”
The student directors who worked with Brown this year were Lauren Ellis, Easterbrook, and Blackwelder. The writing team members were Brown, Easterbrook, Dodge, Toby Pitton, Skorina, Isabella Meadowcroft, and Lennox.
To learn more about getting involved in drama or to find upcoming performances, visit wallawalla.edu/drama.
Posted April 20, 2026.
