The scene was quintessentially theatrical. One hundred and fifty Intro to Drama students were packed in the lobby of the Ruth Caplin Theatre, frantically preparing for their final exam — a performance. A graduate assistant briskly walked up to the professor and said, “Well, we’re missing an actor,” while nearby a student in a bear costume discussed a recent final exam with his friends. In the corner, another group stood, arms linked, warming up their vocal chords. The air was full of energy.
The class had been divided into eight groups. Each group was tasked with writing and performing a five- to ten-minute original show inspired by two excerpts from the play “Anna in the Tropics,” by Nilo Cruz. The students could take the quotes and go in any direction they wanted. Perhaps the most amazing thing about these performances was the variety of subjects they covered, despite being based on the same two excerpts.
In the first show, a girl finds her true academic calling by inadvertently taking psychedelic drugs in Clemons Library. The second show follows a murderous, foul-mouthed teddy bear and an old grandfather who hunts him down. Other skits included a spoof on spaghetti westerns, a romance wherein the President’s daughter falls in love with a space pirate and a scene set on the third floor of Trinity. Certain shows were satires of University life, others were completely fantastical and still others were both. The students who created these shows displayed wonderful imagination and created hilarious, captivating theater.
Each performance group was large, but that didn’t present too many obstacles to the creative process. First-year College student and performer Stefan Mitrovic said, “Once the ball started rolling, everyone had something they wanted to add, and it really brought all of us together.”
Keeping 15 people's ideas and egos in check is very difficult, but these groups handled that problem admirably and created shows with plots that were for the most part coherent.
The class had to work quickly and efficiently. The project was assigned just after midterms, but the groups only collaborated for about an hour a week.
“They have a $0 budget and little to no resources other than each other, their creativity, what they have learned in class,” Drama Prof. Cady Garey said about the assignment.
The majority of students in the class are not drama majors, making their productions all the more impressive.
“Many [of the students in the class] say that they are trying to push themselves to do something that they are nervous about doing, or downright scared of — performing in front of people,” Garey remarked. For an inexperienced group, the performances were exceedingly convincing and charismatic.
Despite the sundry selection of topics, one common thread ran through all of the skits — the actors enjoyed themselves onstage. Whether dressed as pirates or bears, as the President of the United States or Newcomb Dining Hall’s Ms. Kathy, or even just wearing a white t-shirt with the word “wind” written on it in black pen, the performers smiled, laughed and gave their all. Their joy was infectious. Before the show began, Garey reminded all of the students to be loose and to have fun.
“That’s the best thing about this final,” she said. “It’s fun.”
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