Two senior theatre majors will kick off King University's spring theatre season by directing two dramatic short plays during the college's Short Play Festival.
Curtains up is 7:30 p.m., Feb. 28 through March 3 in King's Fine Arts Theatre on the main campus in Bristol, Tenn.
The first of the two student-directed productions is "Spasíba: Thank You!," a devised theatre piece created by senior theatre major Jenson Lavallee and fellow King Theatre students.
"The show will be made up of individual études that we will create as an ensemble," Lavallee said. "Études can simply be thought of as short scenes -- a beginning, middle and an end. That's the basic layout."
Each actor will bring with them their favorite item, such as a quote, poem, song, picture, painting or stuffed animal to the rehearsal process, where scenes will be created. More and more theatre groups are creating devised theatre pieces as a unique way to tell stories.
The second short play production is "4.48 Psychosis," written by Sarah Kane and directed by senior theatre major De-Anda Hatfield.
The script dramatizes a character suffering from severe clinical depression and covers ideas such as medical treatment, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and possible causes for depression.
"Depression is a condition that is often misunderstood, and this play responds by boldly depicting one person's struggle," Hatfield said. "The play is stark, disturbing and wrenching."
"We are excited about the student productions," said Elizabeth Dollar, associate professor of theatre and director of King's Theatre program. "Both De-Anda and Jenson have chosen challenging projects that are really stretching our students. The experience they are gaining as theatre artists can't be measured."
For more information, call Dollar at (423) 652-4839 or email ehlee@king.edu.
| Citizen Kane at Scully's | |
| Citizen Kane rocks the crowd at Scully's in Johnson City on Friday, November 26th with new lead singer Rusty Honeycutt. |