The Sinclair Community College Theatre department will host its first Student Showcase in more than 10 years this December, but this one will be different. Previous showcases have been student-directed; this one will be student-written as well.
“We’ve got all these people that can write new plays,” said Gina Neuerer, interim chair of the Theatre department. “We don’t want to keep doing Glass Menagerie a different way. We don’t want to keep doing Shakespeare. We want to keep doing it to be clear, but we also want some new works by new voices.”
Any currently enrolled Sinclair student can submit a five to 40 minute play for the showcase. Neuerer said that submissions should be written with a modest production in mind. She said Theatre faculty will choose which plays will be produced, but subject matter and format would not be restricted.
“I don’t care if you have cuss words, I don’t care if you have edgy situations or if it’s a musical,” Neuerer said. “The type of play, the genre of play, we are not regulating. We are not going to censor it.”
Neuerer said the show will be student written, directed and produced with as little faculty involvement as possible while maintaining structure and professionalism in the overall production.
“We want them to write their plays and be able to produce their plays without us telling them exactly what to do,” Neuerer said. “We hope that the strongest fingers we’re going to have in this is picking the plays. We want the students then to take it and run with it.”
The decision to produce original student work was inspired by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), a national Theatre program that “has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States,” according to its Web site. The KCACTF is encouraging original student work in its regional festivals, according to Neuerer. The Theatre department has not participated in the playwriting portion of the festival before.
“By getting into the play writing, it’s one more opportunity for our students to network and compete with four-year and graduate programs,” Neuerer said. “That’s our goal. We want to raise the bar of our students.”
Though Sinclair is only one of a handful of community colleges to compete, Neuerer said the school performs well at the festivals.
“We’ve had two students from a community college beat out all the students in a five-state region in four-year and graduate programs and go to national,” she said. “We’re really proud of it and we really want to raise that bar.”
Neuerer said the Theatre department will do their best to provide students with everything they need to create a fully supported production that includes a set, costumes, lighting and Blair Hall Theatre.
“I know during my undergrad some of the best projects I did was when the department let us as students go create Theatre on our own,” Neuerer said. “The idea behind it is here’s a student opportunity to create Theatre.”