SUNY Oneonta Mask and Hammer Theatre Club Presents "The State of Affairs"

The SUNY Oneonta Mask and Hammer Theatre Club presented "The State of Affairs," a performance written and directed by Theatre major Rita Musiimenta ('27), and it was shown in the Goodrich Theater on campus from Oct. 22-25.

The State of Affairs was Musiimenta's first full-length play, written from the amusement she found in understanding how the world works. The play comments on affairs (extramarital and otherwise) but was chiefly written to entertain as a melodramatic piece of theatre.

"As a child, I had a copious amount of morbid curiosity that made being a fly on the wall the only thing I cared about," said Musiimenta. "In this way, The State of Affairs is especially written to alchemy that phenomenon and tap into that feeling of being privy to conversation and relationships in places you shouldn't be."

Play Synopsis: Nothing is real, and nobody is serious, especially in The State of Affairs. In a freshly post-election state, Melinda Davis, an escort and long-term companion to the head of state, meets with the head of state on the night of his inauguration at the Dynasty Hotel, where a celebration dinner is being thrown in his honor. After an eventful tryst, the head of state is assassinated in the hotel hallway right outside the hotel room. Melinda, at the heart of this tragedy, becomes the prime suspect as the last person who interacted with the head of state. Detective Alex, a celebrity detective inspector, sets out to solve the national tragedy. In the face of an overwhelming number of suspects, evidence, motive, and means, Alex is tasked with making sense of the events of the night in question. Under insurmountable pressure from his superiors and the public, Alex must make sense of an unexplainable assassination and identify a plausible culprit.

Mask and Hammer is an on-campus, student-run theatre club. In addition to students comprising the cast and crew for their productions, Theatre Department faculty and staff advise on production decisions, help oversee logistics and timelines, and guide students in developing their character roles.

"As a director, my efforts were aimed at ensuring the writing's purpose is achieved, and all the subject matter is clearly communicated," said Musiimenta. "I hope for the audience to be let in on my perspective and, through the extended red herring of this world of political intrigue, hopefully see themselves in each of the characters."