SE production features inventor’s struggles

By Katelyn Needham/ managing editor

Carlos Romero charges Tomas Moquete for work Danny Vanegas did at the store. The Water Engine runs at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12-15 with an extra 1:30 p.m. matinee Oct. 14.
Carlos Romero charges Tomas Moquete for work Danny Vanegas did at the store. The Water Engine runs at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12-15 with an extra 1:30 p.m. matinee Oct. 14.

SE Campus’ theater program is kicking off its fall productions with David Mamet’s The Water Engine.

The play follows Charles Lang as he fights scheming lawyers to make a better financial future for his family after inventing an engine that runs completely on water.

“I chose this play because it’s very challenging to do work by this playwright,” SE play director Angela Inman said. “He challenges the actor to take the dialogue and interpret it in a way that sounds realistic on stage. I wanted the actors to be able to grow with the project and work with something that maybe they haven’t come across before.”

The play will have evening showings at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12-15 and a 1:30 p.m. matinee Oct. 14 in the Roberson Theatre (ESEC 1401).

SE student Tomas Moquete will portray Lang in the production.

“This is the first lead role that I have done,” Moquete said. “This particular play is challenging because the lines are very random and scattered, which makes it hard to memorize. Everyone has been doing a great job, though.”

The actors will also get to travel to the American College Theatre Festival at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas, to perform the play.

Cast members Tomas Moquete, Danny Vanegas and Carlos Romero rehearse a scene in SE’s production of The Water Engine, a play about an inventor who fights off lawyers. Photos by Bogdan Sierra Miranda/The Collegian
Cast members Tomas Moquete, Danny Vanegas and Carlos Romero rehearse a scene in SE’s production of The Water Engine, a play about an inventor who fights off lawyers.
Photos by Bogdan Sierra Miranda/The Collegian

“We have a week off before we load the entire play onto a great big cargo truck,” Inman said. “The students are very excited about it. For many of them, this is the first time they are getting to be a part of a touring production. To get that kind of experience in college is very important.”

Tickets are free for TCC students, faculty and staff, $3 for non-TCC students and seniors and $6 for the general population.

“Everyone should watch this play,” actor Carlos Romero said. “It would be a good distraction from studying. The writing is beautiful, the lighting and set is great, and everyone in the production as a whole works together very well to make it run smoothly.”