Mayakovsky: More than a 'must see'

By Charray Reilly
College of Arts & Media

Entering the Eugenia Rawls Courtyard Theatre, one would automatically think to themselves that things look surprisingly calm for a production one week away from its opening performance: the stage is set, conversations are mere whispers, and nobody is running around frantically.  The production crew, instead, is calmly adjusting pulleys for the play’s aerial stunts, while the cast meets in another room to read through the script.  Everyone is the epitome of relaxation.

Further examination will reveal a few glitches here and there; below the surface there still exists the jittery excitement that defines, and often drives, the theatre.  And it will also reveal that the seeming lack of chaos is due to the undeniable sense of control felt by the 50-plus students working in or on Mayakovsky Takes the Stage, a result of faculty members’ efforts to include students in the creative and constructive processes of this original stage play as much as possible.

Faculty member and Mayakovsky author Craig Volk explains that it has always been an approach of the Theatre, Film, and Video Production (TFVP) department to include students in “content creation,” which entails faculty members working with students as if those students were already industry professionals.  A simple concept, yes, and one that most departments strive to accomplish, but an altogether much more difficult task for the TFVP faculty, since the ability to provide students with original material to interact with rests solely upon their creative efforts.

Laura Cuetara, both stage and creative director for Mayakovsky, is tireless in her attempts to incorporate student ideas and abilities into the play’s artistic elements. As Ariel Bradler, Mayakovsky’s student assistant director, points out, having the ability to work on an original play means students are involved in figuring out what works and what doesn’t work creatively.  Can people fly?  How can we incorporate projections and other media elements?  Is the script as good as it could be?  These are all questions students will encounter in the “real world,” and the one-of-a-kind opportunities presented to them by their teachers—Volk, Cuetara, Dan Koetting, Janetta Turner, Tom Sheridan, and Dirk Simon—bestow them with an invaluable knowledge that Shakespeare might not be able to completely grant them.

In fact, the understanding gained from the play has spread through the greater CU system: from physics to pre-med students, the open-call casting has opened up the theatre experience for students of all disciplines.  But as Volk points out, the process of collaborating with students on an original work is much like a science teacher working through a lab experiment with their students: through trial and error, hypotheses are tested, results noted, and progress made.  The diverse population under the Mayakovsky blanket—the blending of intelligences, creative talents, and perspectives—proves that the mixture in the TFVP department is both a theory and a practice worth replicating.