With fourth week already here and fifth week just around the
corner, many UCLA students are already feeling the stress of
midterm examinations. Imagine, however, if that pressure was not to
perform well on an exam, but to single-handedly direct an
outstanding performance on stage.
Three theater students, after only four short weeks of class,
are being asked to do just that. Zoe Boxer, Brooke Lykins and Aaron
Garcia, all third-year students, are part of a four-quarter
directing series offered by the School of Theater, Film, Television
and Media Arts.
This quarter is the culmination of all their hard work, as each
directs a one-act production to be performed this Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday in MacGowan Hall.
“We went through the process of picking a play and getting
that approved, and then there was the process of auditions,
callbacks and rehearsals, all in a very short period of
time,” said Boxer, who chose to direct “Twenty-Seven
Wagons Full of Cotton” by Tennessee Williams.
Each student was given the option to select any play they wanted
to give a voice to, as long as it promised a thought-provoking,
varied and enjoyable show. Garcia chose “Red, Black and
Ignorant” by Edward Bond, which deals with the consequences
of a nuclear war, because he felt the ultimate theme of this
production is especially relevant.
“It really focuses on human struggle and human interaction
and what it is to be human,” he said. “It’s about
realizing our own evils before we point the finger and accepting
things as human rather than good or bad, and out of that, we should
be able to accept everybody, because we see ourselves in
everybody.”
Though “Twenty-Seven Wagons” is about a displaced
cotton farmer in the 1930s South and a story students might not
personally identify with, Boxer feels the themes of the show are
far-reaching and can leave viewers with a better understanding of
themselves and the world in general.
“This play is so much about the choices you make in life
and the fact that choices are not always going to be good versus
evil,” she said. “Sometimes they’re just the
lesser of two evils ““ it’s not an experience you (see)
a lot in theater and film.”
Communicating life lessons was also high on Lykins’ agenda
when she decided to direct David Henry Hwang’s
symbolism-infused “The Sound of a Voice.” The story
follows the plight of an aging warrior who goes on a mission to
kill a witch in order to reclaim his manhood, but ends up falling
in love with her instead.
“This one-act says something about life that needs to be
said to people,” Lykins said. “It says that love
isn’t enough. When you love somebody, society and all the
things that are expected from you suck you up, and you carry all
this baggage around that keeps you from being able to have good
relationships with people.”
Although each one-act deals with different themes, the young
directors hope the show comes together as one to spark a light in
the minds of UCLA students and other audience members to think
about life in a more critical manner.
“It’s important to see what we produce as students
because that’s what’s missing in our education ““
interaction and talking,” Garcia said. “We all read
about everybody else’s ideas who are already dead or 50 to 60
years old; how about our ideas?”
ONE-ACTS: Performances are free in Macgowan Hall Jan. 29 and 30
at 7:30 p.m. and Jan. 31 at 4 p.m. Another run of one-acts will be
performed Feb. 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 21 at 4 p.m.