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.