Senior Theatre and Communications major, Engels Perez, is getting his first break as a playwright thanks to Morningside College and Shot in The Dark Theatre Productions. Perez is producing his play “Blink of an Eye” on campus for the first time November 14th through November 17th.
One thing that makes this experience special compared to other plays the Theatre Department usually puts on is that the director and actors get to work hand and hand with the playwright, and will be the first to perform the script in front of an audience.
Perez started writing this play about 3 years ago and it has been through countess work shops since then. When asked about the process Perez said, “It has been a long time coming, I started writing this play at the end of my freshman year at Morningside, so to see it all come together in my last year here is very special.”
Although, Perez finalized the script, the director, Taylor Clemens, is stil working directly with Perez as rehearsals start with changes necessary to the script and layout of the plot to make things more efficient and run smoothly. “The show brings in a lot of elements that you just don’t see in small theatre productions, hell you might not even see them in well established productions. Engels is taking risks and as the President of Shot in the Dark and head of the Theatre Department I am happy to take that risk with him.” Clemens stated.
Many individuals have been apart of the writing and preparing process apart from Perez and Clemens. Senior Theatre major, Madison Schueth, is on the Production Team for the play, and was one of the first people to do a read through of the rough draft. Schueth is also cast as one of the leads of the production now. When asked about the changes she has seen from day one to preparing it for an actual performance Schueth said, “The beginning was rough, there were scenes that we needed to cut, and then other places where things needed to be added, so it has been interesting seeing it come together with each read through we have done…Being apart of this has been different than anything else I have done with the Morningside Theatre Department so I am excited to see the reaction the audience has and see how successful we can make it.”
The play is a dark drama/comedy, and has vulgar language and some amounts of substance abuse, and physical violence. This should be considered when walking through the doors to watch the show.