Theatrical Invention: UF’s ‘The Devised Project’ will Represent Entirely Original Production
Originality and creativity will take center stage in the University of Findlay’s staging of “The Devised Project,” the Theatre Program’s spring dramatic play. Shows will be held April 11-13 at 7:30 p.m., and April 14 at 2 p.m. in the Frank J. Egner Center for the Performing Arts’ John and Hester Powell Grimm Theatre.
General admission will cost $6. UF students, faculty and staff will be admitted from with a valid UF ID. Tickets are available at the Marathon Performing Arts Center’s online box office at mcpa.org or by calling 419-423-2787.
Guest directed by Ben Gougeon, the production has been created entirely from scratch. According to John Walton, known in the theater world for his artistic performance creations that range from comedy to opera, devised theatre is “a process by which the whole creative team develops a show collaboratively. From actors to technicians, everyone is involved in the creative process.”
Participants typically begin with improvisatory theater exercises and or other conceptual rehearsal techniques to “tease out stories they’d like to tell and why they’d like to tell them,” explained freelance theater critic and New York Times reporter Eric Grode in TDF Theatre Dictionary. “Over time, a text emerges, one covered with the fingerprints of each and every participant,” he stated.
In an intensive and condensed rehearsal process, “The Devised Project” iteration from UF is being co-created by an ensemble of students and Gougeon using movement, ensemble, and visual elements. The production will focus on a particular them or topic determined by the ensemble. There will be discussion after each performance to review the creative process.
“As artists, the act of devising theatre is the ultimate form of creating,” said Gougeon. “We started from nothing, and through the rehearsal process, will be working to create an exciting piece of theatre that investigations questions about love, fear, and how they intersect. Hopefully, our audience will leave the theatre with those same questions, and can examine how their own lives are affected by love and fear,” he said.
Gougeon, originally from Michigan, is a veteran of stage and screen. He is currently based in New York City, and has directed with Nylon Fusion Theatre, Metropolitan Playhouse, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Shawnee Theatre, Columbia University, and eXit Productions. His acting work can be seen on Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Bull,” and “The Blacklist,” and will be in the upcoming seasons of “The Deuce” and “Succession.” He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Western Michigan University and a Master of Fine Arts from Western Illinois University.
Meriah Sage, assistant professor of Theatre at UF, hopes Gougeon and “The Devised Project” experience will motivate theatre students to generate their own works and participate in additional unique collaborative productions in the future. “The imagination and creativity required in this work will stretch our students in new ways. It will introduce them and engage them with a different (and very popular) genre of theatre,” said Sage. “We hope that it will inspire them to create their own works in the future and encourage them to audition for future Devised work in the professional world.”
The cast includes:
Abigail Starcher
Alisha Ohanian
Celia Brand
Eli Garmon
Eliza Brisbin
Jack Yeater
Paul Beaver
Riley Klauza
Robbie Riffle
Ryan Blake Bush
Sadia Akhter Aurna
Staci Brenneman
Crew members are:
Dramaturg/Assistant Directors: Cody Watson and Jonda Krontz
Stage Manager: Elaine Schaffter
Assistant Stage Manager: Sara O’Bryan
Lighting Designer: Dustin Druckman
Technical Director: Matthew Stimmel
Costume Design: Kathy Newell
Props Design: Jessica Leszkowicz