Bringing the Page to Life: Fordham Experimental Theatre
By Reese Dains
Some people will tell you that theater is all about bright signs or an extraordinary, multi-tiered set. These are all parts of the Broadway spectacle we’re familiar with here in New York. But, when you strip away the layers, theater comes down to writing and acting, two places where Fordham Experimental Theatre (FET) excels.
FET specializes in student-written and student-produced theater, which is to say that it attracts creative Fordham students like a magnet. The past season has featured titles like MarioKart Wrestlemania, a WWE-style storyline filled with Nintendo characters, Dani and Bea, a queer retelling of When Harry Met Sally, and Honest Man, an original jukebox musical. The unifying factors underlying all of these shows? Incredible writing and acting that transcends and transforms the original scripts.
Co-Writers Dorothy, Katie, and Sophia during cast photo day outside Collins Auditorium. Photo credit: Damien Moshman, Political Science and Journalism major at Fordham.
But what kind of work goes into writing a script? According to American Studies and Film and Television major, Dorothy Bogen, “it takes a lot of time, creativity, and patience.” Dorothy recently co-directed FET’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Fregley’s in a Coma with Sophia Forlenza, a Digital Technologies and Emerging Media Major. Their roommate, English and Music major Katie Lussen, also helped write the show, and managed costumes and props.
“Reconciling three creative visions was difficult,” Sophia recalled. The story originally began in Katie’s queer theories class as part of a project exploring homoerotic tension in the universe of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The idea was a drama modeled off of A Picture of Dorian Grey, but after writing parts of the script, the vision changed entirely when the trio realized that “people coming for Diary of a Wimpy Kid would want a comedy.”
Making these changes to the plot and tone required a lot of meeting, outlining, and joke-writing. To get the 70-page script done in time for FET show pitching (which typically happens at the middle and end of each semester), they divided the scenes among them, and though they all had their “own ideas about character and plot,” they achieved continuity by “finding times to sit down together and talk through different scenes.” Overall, Dorothy, Katie, and Sophia agreed that their friendship was one of their biggest assets during this challenging script writing phase.
But that’s not where it ends. After their show was picked, the trio rushed to assemble a cast and creative team under a short three-week turnaround period. Dorothy said that she “really felt that [they] could not have picked better people” to embody the characters while simultaneously working on a long script with a tight schedule.
This is where the second aspect of theater comes into play: acting. During the first read-through, there was “stuff that didn’t land well” and jokes that missed comedic beats. From there, the cast took the lead in transforming the script. Sophia exclaimed that “everyone is so talented that during rehearsal, they would just do something hilarious, and it would be funnier than what we had written.”
Some of the Fregleys in a Coma cast members. From left to right: Allie Bianco, JD Fitzpatrick, Katie Bilbao, Lainey Nguyen, Trip Beardslee, RJ Tammaro, and Delaney Gouveia. Photo credit: Damien Moshman.
Indeed, collaborative theater is all about taking ideas from the cast and incorporating them into the script to create a better, more comedic final product. But first, directors should “ease peoples’ anxieties and set a good environment,” because when people feel confident and excited about the show, “ideas start flowing and they realize all the things they can do onstage.”
Taking inspiration from a remarkable cast and crew pulled from Fordham’s four theater groups (FET, the Mimes and Mummers, the Theatrical Outreach Program, and Fordham Backstage) helped the show enormously. Now, Fregley’s in a Coma stands out as the most well-attended show in FET history, packing the Blackbox (a tiny, classroom-sized performance space in the back of Collins Auditorium) for every performance date.
Putting on a show like this can also turn into valuable career experience. Dorothy described how her interpersonal skills and stress management improved as a result of Fregley’s in a Coma, and Katie put her creative writing and music majors to good use to outline the show, co-write, and create an original score for Roderick’s fictional band, Löded Diper.
For Sophia, who dreams of becoming a screenwriter, it was extremely valuable to see “how to build stories from a different perspective—not just writing, but directing.” This gave her more “insight on how to write better and create better characters in better stories,” and cast interactions helped her fine-tune her comedy writing. Ultimately, FET’s student-written and directed shows help Fordham students apply their writing, and it is a great opportunity for English majors to write creatively.
Looking ahead to next season, FET is putting on The Rocky Horror Picture Show, adapted by Sage Rochetti and directed by Tori Fisher. If you are interested in getting involved, check out the Fordham Experimental Theater Instagram, and remember that any aspiring stage writer can pitch and direct an FET show. Tune in for more details about pitching deadlines and information after the summer!
Reese Dains is a rising Junior English Major at Fordham University. She is always performing on campus through Fordham Experimental Theater, Allergy Friendly Standup Comedy, and Black Sheep Poetry.