The Helmerich School of Drama will host the Student Playwriting Festival the first week of April, featuring two plays created and performed by OU students.
The festival gives students an opportunity to write original plays that will be performed for an audience. In the fall semester, students created and submitted 10-minute plays with the chance of being selected for the festival. In previous years, the number of plays chosen ranged from eight to ten. This year, there are two.
Dr. Nahuel Telleria, assistant professor of dramaturgy and co-curator for the festival, said that due to a decrease in submissions this year, he and co-curator Dr. Kate Busselle felt confident in choosing only two. Since there would not be a full roster of plays, this, he said, allowed the students to expand their work and increase their plays’ lengths.
With fewer acts, the festival’s format has changed from previous years.
“Just because we’ve had a Student Playwriting Festival structure in the past, doesn’t mean that we can’t have a different one in the present that best fits the needs of the student playwrights,” Telleria said.
In the past, each play was 10-minutes long. This year, the festival will feature an hour-long staged reading written by acting junior Logan Collins and a twenty-minute play by dramaturgy freshman Lex Sharperson.
Collins said that the staged reading will be script- and playwright-focused rather than being a full production. With a staged reading, he said, it is indicated that the play is continuing to be built.
“It wants to see what the community is going to think about it,” Collins said.
This is Collins’ second year with the festival. He said that what excited him most about the festival during his first year was how it was fast-paced and allowed for a possibility of growing a play into a larger production in the future.
Collins’ play, “Rhapsody," follows Giselle, a transgender woman who spent her youth as a sex worker. She is trying to make a new life for herself after killing her former pimp, Daddy, but memories of her past haunt her. Collins said the play focuses on themes of gender identity, violence and learning how to forgive and forget.
“There’s this entire population of America that we don’t acknowledge, that we’re actually trained to ignore,” Collins said. “What I’m hoping to do is put them on stage and force an audience to look and to see that there isn’t that much difference.”
Acting sophomore Carson Burton — who plays Daddy in “Rhapsody” — said that acting in this show has been different from shows he has acted in before.
“It’s heavy stuff and I’m not totally used to it,” Burton said. “But while it is heavy stuff, it’s important stuff. So, I think that’s kind of a new breath into theater.”
Lighting and scenic design freshman Noah Jittawait, who is also acting in “Rhapsody,” said that one of the reasons he does theater is to help people escape. He said he thinks Collins does a good job at allowing people to escape to a new world whilst incorporating a heavy topic.
“I think Logan takes something that a lot of people might view as uncomfortable and makes it okay to talk about,” said Jittawait.
Collins is co-directing his play with acting junior Jordan Shykind. This is her first time directing a production, and she said she has enjoyed getting to work with other students to put the show together.
“I feel like I’m learning a lot more stuff than I would have if I was a part of a show that was just adults telling me what to do,” Shykind said.
Sharperson, playwright of “Till Death Do Us Part,” said they felt excited when finding out about the change in the festival’s format.
“Being able to expand (the play) made me able to understand the world better and understand the characters better,” Sharperson said.
A fan of the supernatural, Sharperson said that “Till Death Do Us Part” is a love story between Victoria, a vampire, and Amelia, a ghost, who must push past their differences and allow themselves to be vulnerable.
Sharperson said they are glad to be writing this story at an early point in their college career because it is exactly what they hope to be doing in the future.
“My entire goal for writing is just to write more diverse characters,” Sharperson said. “I want people to be able to see themselves on the screen, on the stage or in a book, and feel like they’re not alone.”
A challenge that Sharperson encountered when writing “Till Death Do Us Part” was creating the world that the characters live in. The story takes place in the sixteenth century, so Sharperson had to ensure the language used accurately fit the time period.
Acting freshman Ripley Cooley will be acting in “Till Death Do Us Part.” She said that her favorite aspect of the festival has been getting to play a part in the creation process of the story.
“Usually as an actor, you’re given your script and you have to know it word-for-word,” Cooley said. “With this, I’ve gotten to vocalize my opinions and it’s been really fun getting to collaborate.”
After each performance, there will also be a "talkback" — a discussion between the audience and the playwright, directors and actors.
The Student Playwriting Festival will take place in the E. Frank Gilson Lab Theatre from April 5-7 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be $8 for adults and $6 for students with their OU ID. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Fine Arts Box Office at 405-325-4101.
This story was edited by Silas Bales and Emma Blakley. Nikkie Aisha and Teegan Smith copy edited this story.
