Off the Lake Productions will host its first show at the Short North Stage this weekend. Credit: Ashley Kimmel

Off The Lake Productions is mixing charity and entertainment this weekend in its Night of One-Acts.

Not only is this Off The Lake ’s first show of the spring semester, but it is also its first time ever hosting an event at the Short North Stage, and will consist of the three short plays, “Check Please,” “4 a.m.,” and “Drugs Are Bad.”

“It’s just a really exciting opportunity for the organization as well as the people who are coming to see the show,” said Casey Murray, a fourth-year in strategic communications and the president of Off The Lake Productions.

The group is continuing its club’s combination of theater and giving back to the community by charging either $1, which will be given to the club’s partner charity of the year, All That, or a canned good, which will be given to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank for admission, Murray said.

“Since our start in 1997, we’ve always considered ourselves a service-based theater group,” Murray said. “It’s a really cheap way to see good theater, and that’s what we like to provide for the community.”

Terry Wheeler, a third-year in psychology and sociology and the director of “4 a.m.” said that he plans to use directing along with other various art forms as a way to “battle the stigma against mental health.”

“If I was able to help people find support groups such as my theater group that I love, then I think they’ll be better off as well because they’ll have a channel to really put their energy into,” Wheeler said.

Although, “4 a.m.” is the most dramatic of the three short plays with its focus on mental health, Wheeler added that all of the shows have a comedic element to them and that everyone will find something enjoyable within them.

“Everyone loves a night of theater, whether it’s a casual amount of people doing it, or it’s professional,” Wheeler said. “You’re all going to get something out of it.”  

Wheeler adds that the stories told in each play all provide something different and that the audience should expect to relate to them.

“At the end of the day, we’re either all playing our own parts, or playing the part someone else wrote for us,” Wheeler said.

Off The Lake Productions will present their Night of One-Acts at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Short North Stage.