Cosumnes River College playwriting students brought their work to light this weekend performing a series of original one-act plays in a two-night showcase.
The event was the final step in the students’ semester-long project where they got to bring their ideas, emotions and dialogue to the stage.
Tickets for admission were a “pay what you can” system, ranging from $0-$30 to keep the performances accessible to any friends, family or community members.
Adjunct professor Anthony D’Juan, said he is proud of his students and praised their ability to express themselves through such a limited amount of time.
“I’m proud of this whole thing, there’s a lot of restraint put on people’s creative lives, so I’m hoping that I can be the one that helps open the door,” D’Juan said. “They’re just opening themselves up to be vulnerable, and what’s more vulnerable than acting?”
Meeting once a week throughout the semester, students said that coming up with a script and making it come to life came with some challenges.
Sevryn Michael, a 27-year-old theatre major, who is director and writer of the play “A Mother’s Prayer,” said that his play gave him the opportunity to challenge himself as a creative person.
“I had a lot of parameters in the process of writing some of my characters, and with that you become so much more creative,” Michael said. “For instance, if you take 20 LEGO pieces, you can come up with millions of unique ideas as opposed to 100 pieces where too much free range can make you feel stuck. Sometimes narrowing things down helps you see the bigger picture.”
Jayden Wynn, a 19-year-old theatre major, said his biggest challenge in this class was balancing school life, work life and finding time to work on his script.
“We only meet once a week. It all comes down to time management,” Wynn said. “You are either a full-time student or have other things to do. In this class you really only have time to talk about if you’ve written anything and then the rest is all on you.”
Cal Crandall, a 19-year-old theatre arts major, said the biggest challenge to overcome was her fear of being vulnerable and what her peers may have thought.
Crandall’s play featured a puppet show, using homemade puppets.
“I was worried about sharing my work and wondered if it was good enough or how others may interpret it,” Crandall said. “What helped me get over it was the fact that this class is a pretty open community, I felt like my play was a little different and was appreciative that other people showed interest instead of shunning my ideas away.”