Written by Rachel Teagle and directed by Nic McMinn, Eastfield’s theatre group put on a captivating and thought provoking performance of The Practicality of Modern Day Mastodons.

When the play begins, we are introduced to Jess and Clint, played by Judah Thomas and Jack Strahm. Jess is comforting Clint after he is passed over for an opportunity at his job, and she asks him a question: what would you do if you could do anything? That is when everything takes a turn, as everybody’s childhood dreams suddenly start coming true. Clint receives a call that he has been recruited to be a secret agent, and when Jess walks into the room, she has become a mastodon as a giant puppet of a mastodon walks on stage. 

From that point on, the play focuses on Jess and her struggle to accept her new reality. Throughout the story, she repeatedly asks herself, “What am I supposed to do now? What practicality does a mastodon have in this new age?” Judah states that “it was hard playing a mastodon.” I tried not to look into its eyes because they’re supposed to be mine but I had a lot of fun playing Jess and finding my character on stage.” She also notes what she thinks students will take away from this play is that “it doesn’t matter if your different or weird you can be yourself and thats ok, its ok to be a little wacko or a little out there as long as you love yourself and find a group of people that love you for you.”

It is not until near the end that she discovers why all of this is happening. Buster, played by Gia, is a child on the verge of dying who made a wish for everyone’s childhood dreams to come true. Gia delivers a powerful monologue as Buster, explaining that if his own dreams of getting better, leaving the hospital, and growing up could not come true, then he would make everyone else’s dreams come true. Gia states that “ I initially struggled with this monologue the most. At first I did it with different types of emotions.” At first she was angry, understanding that her character wants to live a long life but doesn’t have much time left and then she tried portraying Buster with sadness but ultimately it was the anger of her character that made her monologue so powerful. 

At the end of the play after coming to terms with who she is now a modern day mastodon, Jess now filled with purpose she goes off into the unknown to find others like her people who also had impractical dreams, people who also wished to become mastodons.

The Impracticality of Modern Day Mastodons is a powerful play put on by Eastfield’s theatre department that has heavy themes that tackles important questions such as “why not dream with impracticality and what’s wrong with having impractical dreams,” and is “this the life you actually want?”