Students at Binghamton University are taking initiative by running various theater performances on campus, including a studio theater festival, a performance of a popular and controversial play and establishing an independent production group.
The Vagina Monologues, the Studio Theater Spring Production Festival and the independently-run Arora Productions are some of the highlights of this semester’s theater happenings, and they are all primarily directed, casted, produced and performed by students.
The Dickinson Community Players are putting on a performance of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, an all-female casted and directed play dealing with issues that women experience and how the vagina is at the center of them all.
There will be 17 women performing 25 one-woman pieces from the play, some of whom include the directors of the play, Eileen Nunez, Selenny Vasquez, Kimberly Cruz and Gloria Abreu, who are all students.
Nunez, a junior majoring in mathematics, has been a part of the performance for the last two years as an actor. Now, as a director, she said she is looking to use and implement her prior experience in a way that will make this year’s production the best yet.
There will also be a raffle conducted during the show, and an all-female dance team will perform during intermission, which have not been done in previous years. All proceeds will go to charity.
Nunez is aware that the show can be perceived as pro-feminist and that the subject matter may deter males from attending, but she said she urges them to show up.
“[Men] date these girls, [they] always want to understand them. Maybe if they came to the show they’ll … get to learn a lot more about girls,” she said. “I’m looking for people to come and have a great time, to educate themselves and to keep an open mind.”
The DC Players is not the only acting group on campus that can boast about having students as directors this semester. The fine arts department’s Studio Theater Spring Production Festival features both undergraduate and graduate students at the helm.
Three plays will be performed: “Ashes to Ashes,” directed by Aaron Rubenstein; “American Dream,” directed by Joshua Mizikowski; and “Wooed and Viewed,” directed by NJ Agwuna.
Mizikowski, a graduate student, said he believes that the studio shows bring something unique to BU’s theater productions, giving more students a chance to act in actual productions.
“Binghamton does two mainstage, faculty-directed productions a semester,” Mizikowski said. “But you only get so many students to do those. With the studio shows, it gives younger students … an opportunity to be on stage and for those who may not be able to get on main stage an opportunity to hone their craft.”
There are only three and a half weeks between casting the plays and the finished product, so these student directors are thrust into a position where they have little time to ensure that their plays will run smoothly. However, each director, as a prerequisite, must have participated in the fall semester directing project, where they directed a 20-minute one-act show.
Mizikowski said he is aware of the pressures and responsibilities of being a director, but is confident in his and his peers’ abilities.
“[Directing] is an interesting process … You have to be facilitator, mediator, leader,” he said. “The director is responsible for everything but gets credit for nothing. If something goes wrong the director is immediately blamed, but if something goes right it’s just a good show.”
Jatin Arora, a junior majoring in industrial and systems engineering, is the director of Arora Productions, a completely independent and student-operated production crew that aims to use the medium of film to make various videos that are not limited by a set genre.
The crew consists of Arora, Nayan Naidoo, Ray Hendricks, Tasha Casagni, Cuiping Deng and Jagannath Kuppannan, all engineering students.
Arora, who is an international student from India, has had this production crew in development since he came to BU, but has run into a few setbacks along the way.
“When I came in as a freshman, I wanted to do something with filming because I always had a passion for it, but I couldn’t find resources and a platform to actually do it,” Arora said. “I was basically sitting and doing nothing and I really wanted to do it.”
Arora eventually found a crew of dedicated engineers who he said share his passion for filmmaking, and they have been making progress since. They released a short video last semester entitled “Zombie and the Nerds,” which was entirely edited, written, directed and performed by the six-person crew, though they could not find any other actors.
Since its debut, Arora Productions is currently in the process of working on two motivational videos and one engineering-related video. They also hope to expand and find other students who want to be involved.
Prospective actors who may want to work with Arora Productions for their upcoming projects can contact Arora at thecreativeye@gmail.com.
The DC Players production of The Vagina Monologues will be held March 4-6 at the Dickinson Dining Hall.
The Studio Theater Spring Production Festival will take place Feb. 24-27. “Ashes to Ashes” will start at 7 p.m., “American Dream” will start at 8 p.m. and “Wooed and Viewed” will start at 9:15 p.m. Each show will cost $2 and will be available for viewing all four days.