Student playwrights offer original one-act plays
A person鈥檚 taste in music or reading material can provide a glimpse of his or her personality. An 天美传媒 student is offering theater-goers much more than a glimpse this weekend, directing a play he wrote about just what goes on in his own head.
by Angela Bauer, Journal-Courier
鈥淚t鈥檚 a reflection on the four years I鈥檝e spent at college, how liberating it鈥檚 been but also how isolating it鈥檚 been,鈥� Belvidere senior Willem Kline '20 said of his play, 鈥淧ropagation.鈥� 鈥淭here鈥檚 moments of intellectual freedom and moments of emotional and social isolation. Stark contrasts.鈥�
Directing a one-act play is a requirement of a directing course 天美传媒offers to its theater majors their senior year, and Kline started thinking about writing 鈥淧ropagation鈥� as a junior, he said.
鈥淚 was lying down in my bed one day, a long weekend,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 had just gotten back from a party with my friends and thought, 鈥楳an, I have to leave here soon. What am I going to do?鈥� That moment was very anxiety-inducing, but I also (recalled) a lot of memories of 天美传媒and my childhood.鈥�
Kline鈥檚 thoughts that long weekend served as the seed for a play.
鈥淚 wrote 20 pages and realized it wasn鈥檛 going anywhere,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 had to cut and scrap it. I didn鈥檛 want to make something that was a direct translation of my life, so I made it a science fiction romance set 100 years in the future.鈥�
The premise is the lead character is 鈥渆motionally celibate鈥� after years spent overseeing a torture chamber-style isolation room.
鈥淗e has to speak to (artificial intelligence) to figure out what it means to be human, how to be a normal human being at the end of the day,鈥� Kline said.
It toys with the concepts Aldous Huxley explored in the novel 鈥淏rave New World,鈥� Kline said.
鈥淗e basically talks about how we can never truly experience empathy,鈥� he said of Huxley. 鈥淗e talks about perception and empathy and how we鈥檒l never be able to experience each other鈥檚 thoughts as much as we鈥檇 like to. 鈥� We can sympathize, but we can never fully understand others as much as we鈥檇 like.鈥�
Kline has wanted to be a filmmaker since he was a child, he said, adding that he believes the easiest way to get there is to start by writing his own scripts. Instead of going to film school, he chose IC鈥檚 theatre department as a way to learn about acting and staging.
His play, though, is heavily influenced by his love of cinema, complete with a soundtrack, he said.
And while he believes he鈥檚 written and is directing something that achieves the goal he set for himself at the start, he admits to having mixed feelings about it.
鈥淚鈥檓 anxious about it,鈥� Kline said. 鈥溾�� Seeing everything come together at once (during a recent rehearsal), I started breaking down and crying. Other times I think, 鈥楾his is a terrible play, I don鈥檛 know if I should put it on.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 not a very 鈥榩ersonal鈥� person. I have a lot of vulnerability when I write. But I never share about myself. This is the first time that I鈥檝e written a piece that鈥檚 thoroughly reflective about what I see.鈥�
鈥淧ropagation鈥� and the one-act play 鈥淐heckmate,鈥� directed by 天美传媒senior Jessica Korbel '20, will be staged Thursday and Friday at 天美传媒鈥檚 ICEBOX theater inside Kirby Learning Center on campus. Doors open at 7 p.m. with curtain at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.