UCLA, USC students collaborate to put on play ‘Columbinus’

The challenge was there from the beginning: building a community between crosstown rivals.

Last year, longtime best friends Jack Shulruff and Burton Chaikin were both in directing classes. The former attends UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and the latter USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

While in search of scripts for their respective directing courses, Chaikin recalled the play “Columbinus,” written by PJ Paparelli and Stephen Karam, and reminded Shulruff, a second-year theater student. Back in their hometown of Chicago, they were originally supposed to perform “Columbinus” as freshmen in high school, before the play was rejected by the school district.

Years later, the pair returned to the play, each selecting the same scene – as if by fate, Shulruff said – for their classes.

“Columbinus,” which will play at USC’s Village Gate Theatre Thursday to Sunday and at UCLA’s Macgowan Hall May 1-4, is the first-ever theatrical co-production between the two schools. A mix of fiction and nonfiction, the story of “Columbinus” is centered on the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo.

Act 1 is set in typical American suburbia, and the audience watches the evolution of a group of high school teenagers. Act 2 specifically identifies the characters of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, and the story focuses in on the events leading up to and following April 20, 1999.

“It’s unfathomable to me that that is possible. We have become so strikingly numb to acts of violence in our country,” Shulruff said.

After realizing how necessary the message of “Columbinus” is even 15 years after the shootings, Shulruff immediately got into contact with Chaikin and Dominic Bournés, a USC student and the executive producer of “Columbinus.”

As co-directors, Shulruff and Chaikin, supported by Bournés, began planning this past fall and held auditions during the last week of January – two nights at UCLA, followed by two nights at USC.

Kyle Matthew, a USC student and an actor in the play, was not planning to audition for any shows this semester until he got his hands on the script.

“I never thought that I would be collaborating with people from UCLA at all, let alone within my first year, and it’s given me such a unique experience,” Matthew said. “We’ve really become like a family.”

However, with a split cast of eight people (four from each school), two directors and an entire production team, Shulruff said the challenges of a UCLA/USC theatrical union quickly became apparent. Since the first week of February, the ensemble has met every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“It’s very difficult to get a show off the ground at either school, and getting the right people and getting the space,” Chaikin said. “There were going to be a lot of challenges regardless, so they were just doubled by doing it as a collaboration.”

Shulruff said that despite missing out on participating in department productions and withdrawing from Bruin Harmony’s Spring Sing performance, he is very thankful for the learning experience “Columbinus” has given him. Having performed since the age of 10, Shulruff said he learned more about acting from his role as director than in all of his years of drama.

“As a director, you need to somehow convey to the actor what needs to be embodied and bring everything together,” Shulruff said.

Shulruff’s directorial debut deals with the controversial issue within the question of “why” – why two teenage boys assaulted their high school and ended their lives in a joint suicide. “Columbinus” examines issues of hostility, alienation and peer pressure leading up to the shootings.

At the beginning of the performance, the actors go on stage to address the audience as themselves so the audience can recognize that the participants are actors who are there to tell a story, said Shulruff.

As opening night approaches, both Shulruff and Chaikin are looking forward to simply sitting back in a dark theater and watching the story unfold.

“It is a very dark play, that goes (without saying). But I really think it highlights some moments of hope and light, things that may have been missed among characters,” Shulruff said.

Shulruff said that through overcoming obstacles and finding venues for back-to-back weekends, UCLA and USC students were able to create a network for themselves.

“The message is about respecting our peers, being more conscious of what we’re saying,” Matthew said. “And that’s a message I think everyone can relate to.”