Paul Stuart is a self-professed musical theater lover, but despite his high school experience in a number of musicals, he never was cast in one at OU.

Now, Stuart, a drama senior, is at the helm of his very own musical, “Ready,” which he wrote and directed. It opens tonight in the Weitzenhoffer Theatre.

The production is presented by the Student Theatre Initiative, a campus organization that presents entirely student-driven work.

Stuart began developing “Ready” in a playwriting class, but when it was chosen to be performed, it helped motivate him to get it stage-ready, he said.

“It’s really easy to start a project, but to finish it is a lot of work,” Stuart said.

Stuart’s acting reputation is well-established — he’s starred in a number of University Theatre productions, including lead roles in “Is He Dead?” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and he recently won the top award in the regional Irene Ryan Acting Competition. Writing and directing represents a much less-trodden path.

Still, despite the new challenges inherent in directing a musical, there’s a weight lifted at not having to be the one on stage, he said.

Plus, it’s his creation — a fact that makes him visibly elated.

“There’s just nothing as cool as doing your own work,” he said.

Stuart didn’t always envision the story as a musical, but at some point it became clear that’s what it needed, and he wrote lyrics and guitar accompaniment to go along with it.

“I don’t know why it became a musical, [but] I think music is such an effective storytelling tool,” Stuart said.

The guitar- and piano-based musical takes a singer-songwriter approach to the story of Emmy, a young woman who leaves home and treatment for her illness to pursue her dreams of making it big in New York City. There, she leaves something impacting with every person she encounters. Characters play the instruments needed for musical accompaniment onstage.

It’s a common experience for actors to peer into the daunting chasm of life and potential jobs after graduation, Stuart said, and that greatly informed his writing.

“A lot of the story is about what artists face — the unknown of what comes,” he said. “[And it’s] what you do in the moment of fear before you go on stage.”

Musical theater sophomore Meredith Tyler understands that feeling. She plays the show’s lead, Emmy, and has plans to move to New York City after graduation, where an actor’s place is never certain.

“It’s just insane how crazy this business is,” Tyler said. “I can really relate to her. Emmy just represents what we represent as people.”

Tyler related the influence that the character of Emmy has on her fellow characters to Amy Boe, OU drama sophomore who died of cancer in October 2008. Boe had a warmth that affected all her peers, Tyler said.

“Even the littlest thing in life can help someone along their way,” Tyler said.

Helping one another develop the musical has been the signature of the production since she came on board, said Kourtney Kae, drama sophomore and the show’s choreographer.

The collaborative process of perfecting the show’s dance numbers — which cover the genre spectrum, from tap to ballet to hip-hop — has resulted in an organic process where everyone contributes, she said.

“It’s been nice for somebody to say, ‘What about this?’” Kae said. “This is very much our musical.”

That’s part of the appeal of doing a solely student-based production, Stuart said. It often gives students opportunities they might otherwise not have, he said.

“When you do something student-run, you realize how much talent there is [in the department],” Stuart said. “There’s so many times in a program where students don’t get a chance.”

Without the academic pressures inherent in a university production, it can be a more true-to-life artistic endeavor, he said.

“In the real world, you please an audience; in academia, you please a teacher,” Stuart said. “[I tell the cast,] I am not the one to please. Your best work is for the audience.”

Playbill

"Ready"

8 p.m. today and tomorrow

Weitzenhoffer Theatre

Tickets: $5 at the door