Zach Kempf and Professor George Nelson, Theatre and Media Arts
This Project was intended to produce and culminate in two public works of theater, One, written by myself, entitled ‘The Monster of Dr. Frankenstein” and Directed by David Lidell Thorpe; the other, written by Matthew Greene, entitled “for Dear Life” and Directed by myself. The former ran in late December of last year in the Margetts Theater on BYU campus, and the latter ran in mid January in the same.
I am happy to report that both pieces were a success, and were well attended in their 5 show runs with nearly sell-out crowds on every night. They were also well received by the audience and our feedback was very positive and extremely educational.
The first, “The Monster of Dr. Frankenstein” of which I was the playwright, was a very valuable experience for me in that discipline. Early on I was very involved, as I was the producer of both shows, but once everything was put into place and ostensibly functioning, my creative involvement was minimal. So when I went to the theater to see the final product, I was a fresh to it, nearly, as the audience. this was a challenging experience for me, as I typically prefer a high degree of autonomy and oversight on my own work. But I was glad for how this turned out. Despite some things that were not in the spirit of what I wrote, there were many things that were pleasantly surprising and interesting. It was, by it’s very nature, a new work being workshopped on the stage, and as a workshop product, it did exactly what it was intended to do; it gave the audience a chance to see a new work and give their feedback, it provided a wonderful opportunity for it’s actors and director, and it gave me, the playwright, a lot of ideas, changes, and reinforcements with which to reassess and improve the work on which the piece was based.
The work was also being judged by a visiting faculty from another university with the KCACTF program, a national organization that brings together college theater programs in peer review, collaboration, and education. Our reviewer was extremely impressed by what he saw, gave high praise to all involved, and nominated several of the student actors to attend the festival, held earlier this year in St. George. Several of those actors did extremely well at the festival and received recognitions for their work there.
The second production, ‘For Dear Life’ went up in Mid January, after several unfortunate losses of actors, which forced all of us to band together and prove our mettle by coming through for each other. I must say I was very honored to work with these actors and impressed by those who stepped in with limited preparation time and produced outstanding work. The show was again well attended and well received, and I learned a great deal about how to push my actors to produce what the piece required, as well as how to adjust and refine my work as a director in supporting and making the most of the material at hand.
This production was also reviewed by a KCACTF representative, though, being January, actors from this production will not go to the festival until this years gathering.
Our visiting reviewer was quite pleased with the directorial concept and how we established the audience’s role in the piece, as was our audience. And, taking a page from my experience with the earlier play, I operated for a period with little input from the playwright in order to help us in the production express ourselves freely and to bring the writer something unexpected. I can say in both cases that this was a success. Especially as we focused on these productions as workshops. Doing them this way allowed the authors distance from the work in order to better evaluate them, and they provided a fun and experimental atmosphere for the directors and actors to take some chances and put their stamp on the work.
The one disappointment from the experience was that, with these works, we were hoping to lay the foundations for an ongoing project of this nature each year within the department, where several new student works would have the opportunity to be produced and directed by students with a high degree of autonomy. Unfortunately, due to larger external factors, it seems apparent that this tradition will not continue which , from the perspective of all of the students involved, is a shame. We all felt that the experience was highly educational and enlivening, and I personally feel that it will be a loss to those students who don’t have quite the same opportunity in the future. Though the department will continue to do one student written work a year, though it will be faculty directed.And in any case I trust the department will continue to provide good opportunities for students, especially student actors, and to some degree, student playwrights. I do hope they provide opportunities for student directors commensurate with this years experiment both in autonomy and experimental opportunity. I found the opportunity invaluable and I hope that they formulate other programs that provide similar possibilities for student directors in the future.
On a personal level, I can report that my experience with this project, both in a writing and directing, as well as a producing capacity has strengthened my craft and prepared me in many ways, and now, as a full time story producer for The Generations Project, on BYUtv, I have the opportunity to display those skills and to refine them further, this time in a slightly different medium, and a potentially much larger audience.. So the project has yielded fruit in that regard as well.
I want to thank, on behalf of all of us involved in this project, the donors to this program, the ORCA staff and program, and most especially, our faculty mentor, George Nelson, who’s support, defense and personal kindness was an invaluable resource, both practically and emotionally, that made this project possible. So, once again, thank you.