Stud Prod

This year is my second doing StudProd. After really enjoying acting in Kai's show "Bad Influences" last year, I decided to take the next step and actually direct a show. My original plan was actually to write something of my own, but I ended up running out of time before the deadline, so instead I'm working with a script written by Coleman. Even though I didn't write it it's been a lot of fun to tweak the script and move it in my own directions, and to experiment with what works with the actors I have.

The play is called "Powers," and it involves a man who decides to be a superhero for all the wrong reasons (or at least some of them). The superhero genre is kind of overplayed right now, and in fact so is the loser-becoming-fake-superhero genre, and that's a big part of what I think makes this play work. It only really makes sense in a world where other people have done this before, because it's about an ordinary person who decides to live out a common fantasy. I wouldn't say it's a deconstruction of the genre, or even that it makes much of a specific point. Instead it's just a tenuously realistic story about one person doing something mildly unusual, which I think can be just as valuable, and probably more fun to watch. And the other plays look good too, especially the other student-written one, "Meet The Doctor and Her Friendly Staff" (I think that's it).

Even though I didn't manage to put something together this year, I still think that the opportunity to write something that will be performed is a very valuable one, especially for high schoolers. Right now there's talk about abolishing the student-written plays and making the process more about directing, and although I understand that argument (as well as the argument that overall quality would probably be higher if Stud Prod only used published pieces) I also think removing the student plays would take away some of Stud Prod's charm. I remember coming in as a subbie and watching plays that, while not necessarily good, had the definite mark of Uni humor and sensibilities. Later on, as I got to know some of the people who wrote plays, I started to be able to see individual writers' styles and match them with their personalities. Directing other people's writing does allow for some amount of personality to shine through, but it still doesn't have the same cobbled-together feeling of something that's student-made from top-to-bottom.

Still, I don't mean to be down on the idea of directing. There's something about managing a bunch of people so our community can see the best show possible that just feels worthwhile. I feel like it's my little way of making Uni a better place to work and go to school, even if all I'm giving is two 30-minute blocks of entertainment. Right now I think that might be the most helpful thing of all. The grind of everyday schoolwork, homework, activities, and college applications can get a bit numbing by November, especially given our recent excruciating slide into winter, so we need to have things like this to break up the monotony. And even if the show is a flop and it ruins everyone's pre-Thanksgiving weekend, it'll still have helped mix up my routine. You'd think that adding two hours of work every day would increase my stress levels, but in the long run it makes me feel much more like I'm doing something with my senior year, which keeps me willing to slog through pages of essays.