From ice cream planets and sci-fi thrillers to a creative take on Native American land stewardship, the Super Mega Molten Hot Lava New Play Festival was filled with innovative work from students from SSU’s Playwriting I and Playwriting II classes. 

Students from these classes showcased their work for the first time through Zoom readings over the weekend in order to gauge an audience’s reaction to their work.

“The playwrights spend three months drafting ideas for plays, then writing them, then rewriting… At some point, though, you need to read the play for an audience to understand what’s working… based on what we hear and learn at the festival, the playwrights will continue to rewrite,” wrote Scott Horstein, director of the festival and of the theatre studies program at SSU in an email. 

According to students who showed their work, everything from writing the play to watching it come to life on Zoom was exciting.

“My process for writing my play, Fire 101, was an emotional one. The traumatic burning of the Monument Fires going through my family’s property was haunting me as I started Fall 2021 semester… I was able to personify all my emotions into characters, which act as a living play now,” wrote Tiffani Lopez in an email. 

When asked about their favorite part of the process, playwright and third year theater major JP Lloren explained that writing the story was the best part of the experience.

“Creating each character with a pretty simple but compelling personality was just a joy. I am used to writing about already established characters but not original ones. Having people step into the roles I create is strange, though I have confidence in the cast to pull it off,” wrote Lloren. 

Character development was a standout part of the process for another Seawolf playwright.

“You want your ideas to make sense on paper…  [My] favorite part would have to be just thinking of the possible ways certain characters act with each other in certain situations,” wrote playwright Sean Wilson in an email. 

Senior theater major, playwright and director John Ruzicka said, “It’s always exciting to hear your own work written and read aloud.”

Third year earth science major and actor in the festival, Stormi Martin wrote, “It is a little daunting once the scripts come out and you realize that you are portraying a character that someone created for the very first time.”

Collaboration was really important for the festival. Students worked together on everything from the writing process to acting in each others’ plays. 

“Many of the people in the class who wrote plays showed up as directors or actors for other ones, and it was really exciting to see the same people you knew from class now working on your play!” wrote first year student and playwright Rylan Valdepena in an email. 

“We know that each of our plays are in good hands, whether we are acting for each other’s shows or directing for each other, each of us has done our part and shown only the greatest support for each other throughout,” wrote Ruzicka in an email. 

According to Horstein, you can look out for a select number of student scripts that will come to life during another festival in the Spring.

“Some will submit their plays for “Power Lines,” our Spring play festival, where we take two or three short student plays and do actual productions of them,” he explained.

For more information visit the Theater Department website.