The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford spring theater production – like so many things these days – has gone online.
Dr. Kevin Ewert, professor of theater, and his students have turned their original production “Monsters” into a podcast available for listening on Pitt-Bradford’s YouTube Channel, www.youtube.com/uPittBradford.
Every other spring, Ewert leads his students through the creation of an entirely new production – written, directed and designed by students, who are also the actors, stage hands, set designers, prop masters and more.
That task became even more challenging this year when students had to decamp following the university’s spring break due to the coronavirus pandemic. The production being planned was for a live audience in the university’s studio theater.
In the beginning, the all-female cast wanted to create something to address identity, gender, victim blaming, mental health and sexual politics. In early improvisation exercises, they adopted mythological characters and threw them into various situations to explore these contemporary themes.
“It was in playing with the female characters and their wild backstories from Greek mythology that we found our guiding question,” said Ewert. “Where are all the epic quest stories with women?”
With everyone on board for a quest, students started to create scenes straight out of a Dungeons and Dragons game: assembling a team, encountering monsters, solving riddles, going on side quests, resisting temptations and, of course, fighting a Big Bad.
“We had structured it all and improvised almost all the scenes into existence before spring break,” Ewert said. “It was a lot of fun. It seemed too good to just let it go.”
Ewert and his students rewrote parts of the script to focus on sounds instead of visuals. They moved rehearsals online via teleconferencing software, then each individual recorded their own audio from home.
Patrick Tanner, Pitt-Bradford technical director, mixed the audio from home, adding effects, soundscapes and music.
Students taking part in the creation and performance were Anna Bajowsky, an interdisciplinary arts major from Bradford; Brooke Imbriale, an interdisciplinary arts major from Beaver Falls; Erica Isenberg, an interdisciplinary arts and business management student from Warren; Julie Kephart, a biology major from York; and Julian Rowe, an interdisciplinary arts major from Spring Hill, Fla.
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