Theater program performs an original audio only TCC production
JOSE ROMERO | campus editor | The Collegian
For first time, SE Campus will host a free audio production of a TCC original play, “A Blast in Kranesville” from Dec. 2-9.
The play is about the fictional rural town of Kranesville, Texas. A mysterious factory explosion creates a chemical mist that triggers a lockdown of the town’s residents, leaving the citizens in disarray. The story is told from the perspective of the citizens of Kranesville.
Most school productions are performed in front of a live audience, but this semester required a different approach.
“Once we knew our Fall 2020 Drama courses would be online, we knew our creative project would need to be quite different than presenting a play on the Roberson stage,” director and actor Drew Hampton said.
Hampton realized that a monologue structure in which actors devise the story from scratch would be the most fitting route to take the production. Performing audio-only play turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. During the summer, actor Jesse Humphreys practiced the format, realizing the challenge that doing a podcast would provoke.
“In live settings, actors have both their physicality and their vocals to rely on in order to convey different emotions,” Humphreys said. “With an audio-only play, the actors have to convey that same level of emotion and intensity with purely their voice.”
Theater director Angela Inman sees going the podcast format as an opportunity to further develop the abilities of the cast and crew. She took the pandemic as a chance to further educate aspiring actors on pivoting depending on circumstance. “This project provides our students with an important lesson beyond basic performance skills,” Inman said. “It illustrates the need for theatre artists to persist in the face of adversity and to use their craft to make sense of circumstances.”
Brad McEntire, another director of the project, shared Inman’s optimism about how the project will allow students to get out of their comfort zones and try something new.
“I am very pleased to have been a part of the project and proud of what the students came up with,” McEntire said. “They [students] really stepped up to this unique moment in their growth and education and showed themselves to be professional, flexible and wonderfully imaginative.”
The podcast will be available to the general public for a limited time—Dec. 2 through the 9—on the event website at https://libg .tccd.edu/ABlastInKranesville.
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