By Miguel Rios, Staff Writer
A new, student-run theater company has formed on campus.
The Shadow Collective is a devised theater company that focuses on addressing societal issues.
“It’s an organization that challenges today’s problems through theater, while making it known that we are the change in the world,” said Taylor Blackman, acting freshman.
In devised theater, the script comes together from a collaborative and mostly improvisatory effort.
“You kind of collaborate with the people you are with to create some sort of story,” said Sarin West, acting senior. “It can look like a standard play, it can look like a movement piece, it can look like a musical, it can look like an art exhibition.”
The Collective originates from a single project encouraged by Brian Parsons, associate dean of the theater school,West said.
“Brian encouraged us to get the first project started and then I ended up turning it into a theater company because I thought it was something that should continue,” she said.
The Shadow Collective Project was an original theater piece based off the cast’s personal experiences with racism.
From that piece, the theater company grew and expanded.
“It opens you up a lot and inspires you to make a change in your own way,” Blackman said. “I’m not necessarily going to go picket, but I can respond in a way that is my art form and that I’m comfortable with.”
The Collective doesn’t have a set rehearsal space. They often use empty rooms in the theater school or meet at West’s house, according to her.
“We got to perform in the Black Box Theater, which just felt good,” West said. “It was nice that the school respected us enough to give us the space and was willing to share in that way.”
Due to performance space issues and consideration for the technical department, the Collective will no longer perform there. Future performances will be in Clara E. Jones Administration Building, she said.
The Collective will host a New Playwrights Festival on April 23-25.
“It’s a weekend series of these plays written by OCU students, performed by OCU students, and produced by OCU students,” West said.
Nick Jimenez, Lily Kennedy and Ian Maryfield have been writing their own works and will present their plays on different days during the Festival.
“I think it’s super, super important to get to work with each other while we can,” West said. “Now all these writers will be able to graduate having already produced a work of their own.”
The plays will begin at 8 p.m. April 23-25 in the administration building. There is no cost for admission.
“This is the way theater is changing the world,” West said. “Although there will always be a space for classical theater, and Broadway, and television and film, I think the most interesting type of theater and the easiest way to be seen is to do something innovative.”
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