This weekend, students will be able to experience a lunchtime break with construction workers and then travel to Europe with a schoolteacher in just one night.

Friday and Saturday night, No Refund Theatre will perform two separate one-act plays, Mere Mortals and The Baltimore Waltz in the Forum.

"We had a lot of directors vying for spots for this semester, and since a few people were interested in one-acts we decided to piggyback a few onto other shows," Mary Shaw (senior-biological anthropology), director of The Baltimore Waltz said in an e-mail message. "I'm really excited to have these two plays."

The Baltimore Waltz focuses on a schoolteacher and her brother. The teacher contracts a disease from her students, and she and her brother travel to Europe to find a cure.

Blythe Hart (senior-theatre) said the story emphasizes living life to the very fullest.

"The play is all about living life without regret," Hart said. "It's all the author's regrets about not spending more time with her brother who died of AIDS. Live life to make yourself happy. That's really the message."

Shaw said the play very subtlety deals with AIDS issues at the time it is set -- the 1980s.

"This play is a very thickly veiled AIDS play. It points out some prejudices and misconceptions about AIDS and the community it most affected in the '80s -- the homosexual community. It highlights what people had to deal with by using a fake disease as a stand-in," she said. "But there is a huge difference between what happens in the show and what the show is about."

The play, even though it is dealing with the '80s, is still extremely relevant for different reasons, Shaw said.

"Part of the show focuses on the fact that the government did nothing about the disease in the beginning. There are a few things we can apply that analysis to today," Shaw said.

Although the play has serious overtones, Shaw said students should come prepared to be entertained.

"This show could very aptly be described as a sex farce. It's very funny, entertaining and sarcastic. And it treats its ultimate subject matter with funny, heartfelt compassion," she said. "It doesn't take itself too seriously, since sometimes the best way to make a point is with humor."

Bryan Thurston (sophomore-aerospace engineering) is a cast member in the play. He said he thinks the play does a good job tackling a tough issue in an interesting way.

"It's important because it explores the issue of how no one did anything in the '80s about AIDS and now its such a big problem," Thurston said. "Interesting perspective on other people's lives, about how not everyone lives the same way. It's an interesting perspective on a different view of the world, that's why I would go see it."

The other play of the evening is Mere Mortals. It has three actors who play construction workers on their lunch break.

Each worker tells increasingly wild stories about their alternate personalities.

"I picked this play because it was a fun little piece I first saw five years ago in high school, and I have wanted to direct it ever since," Kel Elkins (senior-aerospace engineering) said. "There aren't really any important themes because the play is a comedy, I just think people will find it absurd and amusing."

Samuel Horvath (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said he was excited after he found out he was cast as one of the three actors in the short play because the script is so well written.

"I thought that Mere Mortals stood out as the cleverest script that NRT offered for the season and the one with the most interesting characters to build," Horvath said. "The play is really just a funny look at the views of reality of three construction workers over their lunch break. It's a great comedy, and students will enjoy seeing three guys on a skyscraper discussing their unique self-perceptions."

Elkins said students should come to see the play because it will have them thinking.

"It is a great comedy by David Ives, and it will keep people on their toes," Elkins said.