|
|
-
They've got something to say
The works of student playwrights (pictured from the left) Andrew Nease, Michael Dahlstrom
and Dan Heck will be featured in the ISU Theatre production of "I've Got Something to Say."
-
Quite frankly, Michael Dahlstrom was bored.
"All year long we had to write essays," he said. "I was so
sick of writing the same type of paper that I decided to put a little different
touch on this assignment."
For a English 105 class, Dahlstrom was assigned to write an essay on a series
of autobiographies written by famous scientists. The journalism and biophysics
major could have written the traditional essay and probably gotten a good
grade.
But Dahlstrom didn't take the easy route. Instead he came up with a unique
story line ®¢ he wrote a murder mystery. The result is "Murder on the
Mountain" which brings together a "Guild of Thinking," whose
members include Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Edward O. Wilson, Charles
Darwin, Carl Gustav Jung, Jane Addams and Marie Curie. A murder is committed
and the guild attempts to solve the murder, with each member working in
his or her own way. Talk about an unique approach.
"I put all the information from the autobiographies (in the paper)
and gave it to the professor in an interesting way," he said. "It
just happened to evolve into a murder mystery."
Unusual yes, but the paper earned an "A" and Dahlstrom eventually
turned the story into an one-act play which will be performed during "I've
Got Something to Say Too," a production of ISU Theatre.
"Murder on the Mountain" is just one of the three works by Iowa
State student playwrights which will be performed. A movement/theatre piece
is also scheduled to be a part of the program.
"I've Got Something to Say Too" will be presented Thursday, Oct.
12, through Saturday, Oct. 14, at 7:30 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees also scheduled
on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 14-15. All productions will be held in Fisher
Theatre. Tickets are available at all TicketMaster locations and are $11
for adults, $10 for seniors and $3.50 for students.
This is the second year ISU Theatre has produced "I've Got Something
to Say Too." Jane Cox, associate professor of theatre and the play's
director, said like last year, students were asked to submit scripts. A
reading committee of three theatre faculty members read the submissions
and chose the scripts that will be performed.
In addition to "Murder on the Mountain," the production will also
include:
* "On the Eve of Romance" written by Andrew Nease, a graduate
student in English, is about the male and female lead in a high school play.
The female lead (Terry) has been going with Rich, who plays a small role
in the same play. As the play gets closer to being staged, Terry finds she
is more interested in Steve who is the male lead in the production. Nease
based the play on an original story he wrote for an undergraduate class
while he was attending Edinboro University in Pennsylvania.
* "Mental Anchovies," written by computer science major Dan Heck,,
focuses on a freshman student who has some strange visitors who help him
try to solve problems he is attempting to confront.
* Performing arts major Megan Moore conceived the movement/theatre piece.
The piece depicts two women (performed by Moore and Kelly Bartlett) who
are friends and how one attempts to console the other. "This year's
scripts are going to provide a very interesting evening in the theatre,"
Cox said. "The theatre pieces all have comic elements. There are also
moments where the characters discover something important about themselves.
The movement/theatre piece deals with loss and the stages of grieving.
"There is a great deal of variety in emotion and thought." Once
their plays were chosen to be produced, the playwrights have been involved
in the various productions. Each helped with cast selection and attends
rehearsals. "I did one major revision from the original play I wrote,"
Nease said. "I plan to do a few more minor revisions as rehearsals
go on. I pay real close attention to detail. The slightest misplaced word
can apply a totally different meaning than the one you intended."
Nease and Dahlstrom took different approaches to their character development.
Nease describes himself as a writer that doesn't put a physical description
on his characters.
"I've never pictured what the characters look like in my mind,"
he said. "I'm more concerned with their personalities.
"During auditions what I thought was interesting was the different
interpretations of the characters I had created." Dahlstrom's challenge
was to bring life to famous people in a make-belief situation.
"One of the reason I picked these characters is the audience's preconceived
perceptions of them," he said. "Abraham Lincoln is dressed in
black with the top hot. Charles Darwin has the distinguishing beard. Benjamin
Franklin is associated with electricity. But in addition to their physical
attributes, each character stands for something."
Which makes a comic murder mystery all that more unusual. "The idea
of putting these famous individuals into a murder mystery just popped into
my head," Dahlstrom said. "I tried to think of the one thing that
could never happen."
Around LAS
January 29 to February 4, 2001
|
|
