Theater students aim to affect life directly
“Art affects us in our everyday lives,” Jed Broberg said, his food cooling during a lunchtime interview.
Following his lead, fellow director Amanda Beatty verbalized what she believes theater should do.
“You’re supposed to affect the audience in a way that hopefully they will go away thinking about their own life.”
Beginning Monday and running through Saturday, the plays reflect the collaborated work of student actors, designers, sound technicians and directors trying to increase their portfolios. The annual student-directed one acts, which include two comedies and four dramas ranging in time from 30 minutes to an hour, help students learn the real ins and outs of the theater and provide thoughtful entertainment for the masses.
All enrolled in the advanced directing class, the student directors are chosen by instructor and Theater Department head Kevin Doyle. Though the only prerequisite is that a student completes the beginning directing course, Doyle tries to pick seniors, Broberg said.
While the plays have become an anticipated annual tradition, this year’s directors have the chance to work directly with designers working voluntarily to make sets and costumes.
“If you come and see [the one acts], you’ll see a common design for the set. The designer has chosen to use just white for color, because there is a lot of innocence, sincerity and humanity,” Broberg said. “It’s quite interesting, very different from what we’ve had in years past.”
Broberg is directing one of two plays about the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Titled simply, “The Guys,” the play focuses on a fire captain who lost eight of his men in the tragedy.
“He has to give their eulogy,” Broberg said.
The purpose of the class is to show students how to put on a play. Directors pick their own script and work through the entire process from casting to the final curtain call. Though rewarding, Broberg and Beatty said there are some challenges.
“I think one of the hard things is picking your cast,” Broberg said. “We all kind of had, well not a struggle with that, but you don’t want to turn anyone away and trying to find people that will work well together. There’s just a lot that goes into it.”
“[Directing] is a different animal,” Beatty said.
Beatty, who is directing one play and performing in another, said there is a difference between the student productions and the mainstream theater productions performed on the Morgan stage.
“I think the one acts can be a little deeper,” Beatty said. “Because you’re not trying to attract the mainstream audience we can do shows that relate more to us and what we think is important in main stream society. You still want to attract an audience, but it’s deeper.”
Beatty is directing the comedy “Degas C’est Moi,” by David Ives, which portrays the aftermath of one man’s decision to switch lives.
“He wakes up one day and decides his life is pretty terrible and he wants to live somebody else’s life for a while,” Beatty said, “then he realizes everybody’s life kind of sucks.”
Though in years past, certain plays tended to have explicit content, this year all the plays are comparatively tame, Beatty said.
“There’s really not an R-rated night, which is surprising because usually people are like, ‘oh, I can do whatever I want, I can be as racy as I want to,’ but these are all pretty mild.”
Though admission is free and no tickets are required, the productions are being performed in the Black Box Theater which has a maximum occupancy of 100 people. For more information, visit the theater department web site at www.usu.edu/theatre.
Though the directors receive class credit for their participation, actors and other student participants receive no tangible compensation for their work.
“We’ve all worked hard and we want support,” Broberg said. “The one acts are … an education.”
-mattgo@cc.usu.edu