Devising a show is both scary and exciting. We start the process with no script and just the faith that our ideas and imaginations will help the show come together - and it has! We’ve finalized our script for A Night at the Movies, and it’s turned into such a fun and heartfelt show about why we love to escape to the cinema.

Week 6:

This week, we got our whole script on our feet for the first time. Based on our check in conversations during class, and our pre-semester questionnaires, our teaching team wrote several original monologues for this show. It was fun to hear our actors try these for the first time, and to recognize their words and ideas in each other’s speeches. We started introducing props and costume pieces, and we also brought the camera equipment back in to film some additional lines for the filmed portion of our show.

After a particularly good scene, Marty said “I wish the people had seen that so I could get my Oscar.” This led to a fun group conversation - it turns out most of us have dreamed about winning the Oscar, what we’d wear and who we’d thank. We took turns hopping up and improvising our acceptance speeches. Marty thanked his family and his dog. Emily thanked her teachers. Andrew thanked his mom and his dad and his friends Kurt and Sam. Jake took inspiration from Reese Witherspoon’s best actress speech for Walk the Line and thanked Joaquin Phoenix. Everyone had a blast cheering for each other and delivering our speeches. We decided we HAD to include them in the show! If you want a sneak peek, follow us on Instagram and check out our highlights.

Week 7:

In addition to our own monologues and movement pieces inspired by our experiences, A Night at the Movies is also weaving in moments from some of our favorite films like Legally Blonde, Four Christmases, and Back to the Future. This week, in addition to running through our scenes, we also studied clips from these films. It was fun to introduce some new movies to each other, and also to get ideas for blocking and costuming. Both ensembles were able to run through the show from start to finish, and we celebrated with some extra ensemble games to send us into spring break.