City College’s advanced acting class presented an invaluable performance of its two student-directed plays with the common theme of falling in and out of love that premiered Wednesday night in the Jurkowitz Theatre.

This year’s annual “Festival of Plays” were “Almost, Maine,” written by Playwright John Cariani and, “We Could Be Anything,” written by City College student Gustav Högmo. “Almost, Maine” is a play that is a composite of nine short plays.

The play had two consistent actors who performed in “Prologue, Interlogue, and Epilogue,” directed by Kayla Steele. The story followed that they both loved each other, but the other feared they were not close enough and used a styrofoam ball to objectify where they were in their relationship.

At first, it was a bit confusing as the same two actors appeared in the beginning, middle and the end of the play.

When this happened, the thought was that it was an accident and they were trying to waste time because other actors were not ready for their part, but in the end, this part of the play connected and made sense.

One of the funnier short plays was the second one called, “Her Heart” directed by Dean Garcia and Samantha Demangate. Glory, played by Alice Cherie Hansson, performed her role very well as she was hilarious, yet serious all at the same time. This short play was very quick witted and went at a fast pace.

The plot was centered around Glory because she wanted to see the northern lights. She camped outside of East’s home, played by Matthew Byrd, who was vocal about how he was weirded out how she was on his front lawn. Glory insisted that she stay because she was “in the right place.”

Hansson was very funny as she was quick with her words and made her performance very humorous.

Later, “Where It Went” was another great performance because of the authenticity the actors had with their relationship. The plot was about a husband and wife who were just not getting each other anymore.

Phil, played by Gary LeClaire, and Marci, played by Michel Minor, did an outstanding job in their performances. They were arguing onstage and it felt so real that it was almost uncomfortable because the tension could be felt throughout the audience.

The last performance in “Almost, Maine,” called, “Seeing the Thing” was directed by Marion Freitag. This was by far the most comical because Rhonda, played by Danielle Wall, sort of resembled Amy Schumer in the movie, “Trainwreck.” Her sarcasm was so perfect as it fit well with her “not into love” personality.

Overall, each play was so unique in its own way and each of the actors did a wonderful job at portraying their characters. The connections they had with each other were authentic and it was something that everyone can relate to.

The production will continue to run through Friday, May 5 in the Jurkowitz Theatre. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available at the door for $5 for the general public and free for students with their student identification card.