by Rosie Sinapi
Editor in Chief
Unconventional, avant-garde and original describe the student directing productions to be presented by ULV’s Theatre Department.
Starting tonight and tomorrow and continuing next weekend, the Theatre Department’s student directing class will offer one-act plays as part of their class project. The free performances will begin at Dailey Theatre and move to found spaces around ULV.
“Some directors are going to find spaces other than the theater to perform, that way it will keep it interesting,” said senior director Erika Armstrong.
Dr. David Flaten, associate professor of Theatre Arts, teaches the class and is impressed with the variety of plays the students have chosen.
“They’re doing great. All the students have their reasons for choosing the plays,” said Dr. Flaten.
“A director will say they don’t know how to do this and students will give the person advice. This is a dialectic process of questioning in class and practice. You keep changing the play. You don’t start with something that is finished,” he said.
Although Flaten has always been impressed by the quality of one-acts each year, he admits over his 20 years of teaching, at the final production he always has ways to improve upon the plays. Flaten will have eight plays in which to offer advice, varying in length from 15 minutes to over an hour.
Senior Erika Armstrong’s “Success,” senior Scot McElvany’s “Dreamers,” senior Eric Mullholland’s “Finger Food” and junior David Held’s “The Sure Thing” show tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
“Success,” written by Arthur Kopit, is the shortest of the plays. It covers the visit of a well-known author to a college campus.
“He comes to talk about his book on suicide. He is so tired about it that all he wants to talk about is football,” said Armstrong.
While “Success” deals with the grim theme of suicide, McElvany’s project, “Dreamers,” by Shel Silverstein, takes sexual orientation and turns it around.
“It is an attack on the therapy culture in our country,” said McElvany. “It strikes at the absurdity of sexual orientation as a political issue.”
The play focuses around two male plumbers at work. One has recently had a sexual dream about another man.
According to the director, the script is hysterical and non-threatening. Through the play, he believes he and the two stars have been able to share their ideas and bring those into the performance.
“I hope people walk away thinking pipe gunk is much more disturbing than homosexuality,” he said.
Likewise, Mulholland has chosen a comedic play. “Finger Food” by Nina Shengold focuses on the obsession of a hand model with her career.
“It’s a little comedy about the fashion industry and the obsession of these characters with their jobs,” he said.
In a similarly humorous manner, Held is directing “Sure Thing,” written by David Ives.
“It’s about the struggle of trying to get things right in a relationship in all the wrong ways,” said Held. “It just made me laugh a lot when I read it and I wanted to add two more people to it.”
The three other plays, senior Tyrone Youngblood’s “Testimonies,” Roxanne Emery’s “Jane Adams and the Devil Baby” and Erik Johnson’s “Zoo Story,” will be presented next Friday and Saturday.
Written by August Wilson, “Testimonies” consists of four short monologues revealing the character’s tales of being African Americans.
“I wanted to put in people’s minds the black perspective; why African-Americans are frustrated,” said Youngblood. “The play shows that African Americans are human and civilized contrary, to what some people may think, not people at ULV, but there are people who think that.”
Although this is Youngblood’s first attempt at theatrical directing, he has found no problems with the process. He is anxious on how people will receive his bold play.
Emery selected her play on the basis of its sincerity. “Devil Baby” focuses on feminism and sexuality in a striking manner.
“It’s about two lesbians and how they see a devil baby evolve,” she said. “It’s about man taking over the woman.”
Emery explains the message is not about male bashing, but about women taking charge.
The most complicated of the student one-acts is Johnson’s production of Edward Albee’s “Zoo Story.” According to Johnson, a person must see it to believe it.
