OCU’s Mainstage presented Enron! in the Burg Theatre October 28-31. Enron! was written by Lucy Prebble and initially released in London in 2009. The play centers around an energy company, and the financial scandal that occurred from 1992 to 2001.
OCU’s production was directed by Kris Kuss, Assistant Professor of Voice and Acting. Enron! marked his first Mainstage directing experience. Kuss spoke in an interview about working on Enron! and the rewarding experience of collaborating with the production’s creative team.
Kuss said the subject matter for the play is still of great relevance, twenty years after the scandal. This year marking the scandal’s twentieth anniversary, there are still many working in the energy industry who were affected by Enron’s fraudulent activities. The company’s base in Houston, Texas, also affected people in Oklahoma.
After the production’s opening show on Oct. 28 at 8 p.m., a panel of Meinders Business School professors discussed the business practices and their perceptions of the scandal’s impact.
“These professors worked in the business world, and had interactions with the company of Enron,” Kuss said. “At the time if you were in the energy business, you couldn’t help but be in business with Enron, they were the big ones. We felt like it was notable that there was a lot of personal connection to it.”
The play contains informative depictions of the financial and business practices conducted by Enron’s leadership. In addition to academic content, it contains music, choreography, video projections, and a unique perspective into the characters of Enron leadership.
Kuss described the interesting nature of the play, how it flows from factual depictions of events and company practices to surrealist depictions of growing chaos and corruption.
“In some ways, the play starts out feeling very much like a documentary piece of theater, but in grand theatrical fashion, some of these weirder concepts – particularly when these people, these men, who thought they could reshape the world to suit whatever vision they had,” Kuss said. “As they do that the world of the play starts taking on sort of a more surrealistic bend.”
According to Kuss, Enron! is unique in its style. “The play has this really interesting theatrical tradition of blending the realistic and the surrealistic and, weirdly enough, the more other-worldly the play gets, it’s actually more of an accurate depiction of what was happening, as opposed to what Enron was showing to the public,” Kuss said.
The creative team for OCU’s production includes scenic designer Jason Foreman, lighting designer Andy Wilding, costume designer Meredith England, sound designer Harley Harris, and properties director Courtney Quinn.
“One of the most rewarding aspects was getting to work alongside incredibly skilled, incredibly talented artists, and being able to come into the room – being in production meetings or in rehearsals – and know without any doubt that everybody there is bringing their best work,” Kuss said.
Kuss noted one challenge was directing actors to portray real individuals who caused the scandal. He said it was a struggle to invoke empathy from the audience. However, Kuss said the actors worked with him to find portrayals of these characters’ humanity that would go deeper than their deeds alone.
“Even though we are not trying to excuse what these men did, we are still trying to make the audience understand what motivated them – always that’s what our interest in theater is,” Kuss said.
He said his wish is for the audience’s empathy to be stimulated so they may practice it in their daily lives.
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