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ENTERTAINMENT
THE REFLECTOR
APRIL 17, 2019
SDPs allow students to direct E
very year, upperclassmen theatre majors are hand-picked by theatre professors to direct their own plays. While student directed productions vary from year to year, the process of picking student directors remains the same. Students submit three plays and a paragraph about why they want to direct, then go through an interview process. Professors select students to direct and also pick the plays that will be featured, based on students’ preferences and interviews. Professors pick plays with similar themes. This year's set of plays are centered around controversy and common problems. The plays opened April 12-14, and will again run in full from April 25-27. Because of intense themes of suicide, bullying and abortion, no one under the age of 18 will be allowed in the theater without a parent or guardian.
"Rare Birds"
"Sibs"
Photo by Kiara Conley
Sophomore theatre major Clayton Rardon and junior theatre major Carly Wagers play a bullied teen named Evan and his crush, Jenny, in Kelly Casey's version of "Rare Birds."
Evan Wills, the play's main character, is a high school student struggling with depression and frequent bullying. Evan is obsessed with birds and has a crush on a girl named Jenny. When his bullies find out about these things, they ridicule him. Senior theater major and director Kelly Casey said "Rare Birds" was not a part of her original submissions. She only showed the professors "Rare Birds" after they asked if she had considered directing anything else. While the play
takes on a more serious tone, Casey said she wanted to create a fun environment for all six of her actors. “My No. 1 goal is to make sure that everyone has a happy and successful rehearsal,” Casey said. “I want the space to be fun and energetic even though... there are parts in this play that are not happy and sad and stuff. It needs to feel like a safe environment for my actors. And I think personally for me, I like creating that space.”
Story by Jayden Kennett
“Sibs” is a play about two siblings reliving the moments before their father's death. Junior theater major and director Emma Rund said she chose the play after she performed it in high school on her speech team with her brother. While her play is not as controversial as the others, she said, it is centered around family problems that most people can relate to. “I think what's interesting about my show versus the other ones is that they cover more like stereotypical controversies, where mine is more of family controversies,” Rund said. “I don't think it's talked about a lot that families don't seem controversial, but they really are, because something that's a major theme of my play is feeling so alone in a family that you're supposed to be close to. And I think that's something everyone could connect to whether it be like they're an adopted family, they’re blood family, they’re a found family, everyone has a family and everyone has gone through these distances. And realizing, that at the end of the day, family is all we really have.” Rund said while she hopes people enjoy the show, she wants the audience to experience the events vividly. “I hope the audience leaves my show feeling the need to call one of their loved ones and say that they are heard and that they are there for them, even if they haven't been there for them this whole time,” Rund said. “So I just want them to leave feeling that they need to keep their family close to them.”
"Dry Land"
Photo by Kiara Conley
Freshman theatre and communication major Ki Tally and freshman theatre major Audrey Panyard portrayed high school swimmers in Destiny Huegel's adaptation of "Dry Land."
"Dry Land" is a play about friendship, resilience and abortion, according to junior theatre major and director Destiny Huegel. The play is centered around two girls in an empty locker room, confused, performing an unsafe abortion. Huegel said she wanted to direct a play that will elicit a reaction from the audience and make them feel as if they are experiencing something vivid. “There's a lot of people that will come see this play,” Huegel said. “Any man, just because they're a man will never have to experience this. So, it's putting people in the situation. When they do have a conversation about it later, they've had some sort of actual expe-
rience with it…. It's not like a preachy play or a political play, it just happens.” Huegel said she hopes to make the audience uncomfortable so that they will start the conversation about unsafe abortions. “It's still an uncomfortable thing to talk about it, so it's going to be uncomfortable. But that's kind of the goal is to show them that this is a regular thing that happens and has to happen unsafely, way too often,” Huegel said. “And that's kind of the goal, is to make them uncomfortable and for them to be able to leave and think about it and, hopefully think about how we can change a little bit.” Graphics by Madison Gomez
Graduating composer's original pieces performed By Alissa Kennelly
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Photo by Shane Phillips
One of Kylie Seitz's pieces symbolized mental illness. The right side of the figure shows positivity while the left shows negativity.
Photo by Shane Phillips
O.J. Moor's work was done in prints and reflected themes of gender fluidity, such as a one depicting a male and female face.
Seniors exhibit final work
Art students take part in final exhibitions as Greyhounds By Madison Gomez EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
To shed light on issues that are swept under the rug, works from two seniors were displayed in the basement of Schwitzer student Center during April. The two seniors, who had similar concepts in their art, were partnered together coincidentally. Senior creative writing and professional writing major Kylie Seitz said that her ceramic work displayed in the gallery fit well with senior visual communication design major OJ Moor’s photographs. The two did not chose to be put together, but the gallery seemed to have a theme, Seitz realized once they saw each other’s work. Seitz’s ceramic work included images on mental health while Moor’s photos expressed the difficulty of working through grief and body image. A culmination of years of work, the gallery was a chance for the two seniors' work to be put on display. “I think it works very well because our work works with a lot of themes that are ignored in society," Seitz said. "We don’t like to talk about mental health, grief and body image. I think it worked very well for us." The two had to complete a senior portfolio course that allowed them to work on the process of setting up pieces for the gallery. Each senior had to select a series from their years of education and then create another for the class to reflect of what they have learned. Seitz’s ceramic projects dealt with mental health, she said, with one of
the centerpieces in the gallery showing tos were trickier because they are larger, the duality of a person struggling with longer prints that needed to conform to a mental illness. The piece was a top the particular specifications Moor rehalf of a person, the left side of which quested. was dark themed, razor blade filled, “The idea, the concept and the vision cuts into the skin that was spelling out came from OJ, but supporting them body shaming and negative ideas. The and figuring out how to articulate that right side had bright colors and words [printing style] technically, was really of kindness towards oneself to juxtapose great [for me] to be able to figure out the negative side. The centerpiece and how to print the files,” Pfohl said. the overall theme of her show dealt with Moor said they saw as the crowd roots, which to her symbolize growth came in, that the space was convenient and foundation for both struggles and for the both of the artists. One person’s recovery with mental health, she said. work was on the pedestals and the othSeitz said she chose to focus on er on the wall. Watching people look mental health at their work, because she Moor said believes it is they felt vul“It's really emotional...it's nerable, yet important to shed light on kind of vulnerable, being excited for cristruggles that tiques. an artist in that way.” so many peo“It’s really ple go through emotional, not yet feel like only just bethey have to hide. cause people here, they’re actually seeing Assistant Professor of Digital Pho- it, it’s kind of vulnerable being an artist tography Sarah Pfohl, who was Moor's in that way,” Moor said. “Like ‘here’s my professor for their portfolio class, said heart and soul that I poured into this that Moor’s work helped Pfohl grow by work for so long,’ but I also try to use learning how to deal with printing cer- my art as a form of therapy for things tain images differently. that I’m going through and that’s really The first set of Moor’s photos that evident through my artist’s statements.” was presented in the gallery dealt with Over the span of four years of work in a loss of a loved one. Pfohl said that the class, each student chose their best work project they made their junior year was to showcase to the public and Moor a more traditional approach to portfolio said it was more than just a reflection of presentation, while the other set, made themselves in each senior’s gallery. their senior year, dealt with body image “It’s been incredible to see everyone and presented a more contemporary fall into their own niche of what we’re take. doing in this industry," Moor said. "EsWhile they were both printed on pecially because it is a creative industry luster photo paper, the senior year pho- and it’s becoming more corporate."
Friends, family and students of the music department gathered with community members in Ruth Lilly Performance Hall to listen to the work of student composers at the Student Composers Forum on April 2. The music department offers students opportunities to experiment with writing music through the beginner’s composition course and private composition lessons for more advanced students. Throughout the classes, students prepare lesson plans, listen to guest speakers and create pieces for the Student Composers Forum. These pieces are then performed at a show to allow them to share their music with the community. Professor of Music Composition John Berners said he puts extra effort into not intimidating students during their creative processes. “Sometimes students will come in and they’ll think ‘I’m writing this as an assignment for a professor so I have to do something different from what I normally do,’ and I try to not give off any of that vibe,” Berners said. Students do not normally perform their own compositions; rather, they compose pieces that are performed on campus by other musicians. According to senior music major Luke Garrigus, despite having done this for many years now, he still gets nervous when he hears his music played. While the audience’s experiences are important, the reactions from musicians that play his work are the ones that impact him the most.
“The audience hears the piece once and it usually goes well, the reactions are good, but the reactions that really gets to me are the ones of the musicians who are studying it,” Garrigus said. Writing pieces can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, Garrigus said. "Spendens Requiem," a piece written in remembrance of his wife’s beta fish, took only a few days to create, whereas "GOOSEZILLA," a piece incorporating geese sounds recorded at the pond by Greyhound Village, took about a semester to edit. For Garrigus, the show had special meaning: it was the last time he would hear his peers at the University of Indianapolis performing his original compositions. Garrigus said that after moving on from the university following his graduation in May, he would miss working with Berners. “I never feel pressured, but I feel inspired by him, and I'll miss having conversations with him about the philosophy of music and about living composers now and listening to hilarious pieces of music together,” Garrigus said. Although Garrigus will no longer perform with his fellow students, he realizes that he is still going to be doing what he loves and is excited to apply what he has learned at UIndy to his career in the near future. “It’s really exciting in a lot of ways,” Garrigus said. “Because now I get to come back as a guest and listen to these concerts. So many people who have gone through the composition department are still composing….We are kind of doing the same thing the university is doing just on our own now.”
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