Never Send to Know: A Senior Show by Cale Engelkes

By: Benjamin Wollmuth

On February 25, 2023, the University of Sioux Falls’ senior showcase season came to a close. The season, which can span throughout the whole year depending on how many senior Theater Studies majors there are, is meant to give the soon-to-be graduating students a chance to showcase what they have learned throughout their years of study. This year, the season concluded with a senior showcase from Cale Engelkes, a Theater and Media Studies double major. With a desire to do something different that still fit within his interests, Engelkes decided to direct a radio play titled Never Send to Know, which would allow him to include voice-over and sound effects live on stage for the audience to witness. 

Never Send to Know is adapted from the radio show Quiet, Please, created by Wyllis Cooper. The half-hour plot follows a ghost, who can’t remember when or where he was murdered, who hires a private investigator to help solve the case. Engelkes says that he was drawn to the show not because of its plot, but because of what it would allow him to do. “I decided on this show specifically because I am a media and theater double major and doing a radio show encapsulates both of my majors in one, as well as both of my passions in one. I decided to go with a murder mystery show,” he continued, “because it has a lot of really fun voice acting moments, a lot of very fun characters, and a lot of challenges to get them to be the way I wanted them to be.” 

Engelkes, who is used to being on stage rather than behind the scenes, says he enjoyed being in the director’s seat. “As a director, you kind of have to poke and prod at the actors to send them in a certain direction rather than just [letting them] do it [themselves]. It’s been fun to have my vision of what I want this show to look like be crafted and melded with the other actors, because they have their own vision of how they want it to be, too, so finding a nice middle ground in there between my vision and their vision and making a cohesive, unified vision has been very fun and rewarding.” Engelkes continued by sharing the challenges of directing versus acting. “I’ve acted ever since I got here, and ever since before I got here, so going into a different state of the production and actually being able to craft the show and direct the actors in ways that I want the show to look like is a very different and difficult way to be. It’s been very challenging to communicate my vision of how I want things to sound, how I want certain moments to hit, compared to just going in and acting and making those choices.” 

Never Send to Know, like most senior productions, took place in the Jones theater, a small black box theater in the basement of Jeschke. Engelkes’ stage manager, Matthew Sterud, who has stage managed multiple productions at USF, says the Jones is the perfect setting for senior shows. “[The Jones] is a much smaller stage, so it feels a lot more intimate. Not only is it intimate because it’s small, but it’s intimate because you’re working with your classmates and your peers… Instead of a chain of command, it feels a lot more collaborative and that everyone is on the same playing field. It’s intimate in its space and intimate in its feeling.” Both Sterud and Engelkes hope viewers of the senior productions are able to see their benefits. Engelkes specifically hopes all those who put on a senior show are able to see the impact it can have. “Senior shows,” said Engelkes, “give seniors a taste of what it will be like to be out and working in the theater field, [as well as] give them a place to experiment and be in charge of a production, and, really, it’s just a place where you can put all of your knowledge on the stage and show it off to everyone and go, ‘Hey, this is what I learned here and this is why I should be hired in the field.’” After having one night canceled due to complications with the weather, Never Send to Know ran for two consecutive nights, February 24 and 25. While this year’s season has come to a close, you can still look forward to next year’s season, which will give even more students a chance to showcase what they have learned.