New Theatre Program Presents Original Production ‘SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO’ Nov. 7-9
The new Theatre program in the Texas A&M College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts will present its inaugural production titled “SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO” Nov. 7-9 at 7:30 p.m.
The three sold-out shows are at the Black Box Theater in the Liberal Arts and Arts and Humanities Building. The show is suitable for ages 13 and up.
“SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO” is a comedic play devised by the ensemble, according to Rayna Dexter, interim program director for Theatre and instructional associate professor. The play explores heroism in the contemporary world.
“We started with asking students, ‘What does it mean to be a superhero?’” Dexter said. “We wanted them to think about superheroes in pop culture, and how much that is part of our entertainment. But also, what does it mean to be a hero in your everyday life as Gen Z?”
Devised theatre is part of the newly launched Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre. Students and faculty build the performance from the ground up without a prewritten script. Devised theatre focuses on decentering the text in theatrical performance-making, to allow an ensemble to collectively craft a production.
Students were introduced to the concept at the start of their eight-week production process with Dr. george mcconnell — who prefers the lowercase version of his name — who is an associate professor and the show’s director.
The performance includes movement sequences, comedy sketches, personal stories, original music and costumes, sets and lighting, Dexter said. Each cast member will have a different superpower manifesting through an inflatable item Dexter crafted.
Devised theatre productions are like a collage, Dexter said, where some of the performers speak as their characters and other times as themselves. But the production doesn’t follow a traditional story narrative arc.
“It is a lot of little things that have been collaged together,” she said. “Devised theatre focuses on the experience and the event, rather than on the interpretation of a text. It’s more about a group of people coming together to experience something in the same place at the same time.”
The cast does not have a completed script in the beginning, mcconnell said. Rather, the students create the performance and dialogue together, with direction from mcconnell.
“I tend to make weird things that are non-narrative,” he said. “Devising pulls materials from everybody in the thought process. Students simultaneously have to learn playwriting, directing, design and performing all at once. So, I don’t call them ‘actors.’ I call them ‘creator-performers.’ They are creating dialogue, design, music and choreography.”
The six-person cast and four-person crew are students from majors including Theatre, Visualization, Performance and Visual Studies and Psychology. Dexter said it’s been exciting to see the students devise from different perspectives, which also helps expand on the program’s reach for students across campus.
“It has been interesting for me to think about what it means as we start to build culture for a new major,” she said. “We are teaching them it’s not just about memorizing somebody else’s words and saying them back. It’s about critically thinking about your experience and important issues in the world, and I want them to feel empowered to do that.”
The students’ confidence has grown as they gain ownership of their creation, mcconnell said. He wants students to feel inspired in their creativity.
“Because it is so embedded in what the creator-performers do, this type of theatre tries to draw on who they are,” he said. “My hope for the students is to really instill in them what it means to be an artist, that we are making good art and to own that.”
Dexter said the program aims to offer a new perspective on theatre at Texas A&M, and she would like to see productions like “SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO” become more accessible in the community. They are a conversation starter, she said.
“I hope our program is a jumping-off point for dialogue,” she said. “I think that is what it should be, by engaging questions about our lives and what is happening in our world right now. Through the words and actions of people living those experiences, that provides us a new way of coming together and thinking about these things.”
Photo by Igor Kraguljac. Graphic design by John Boran.
