<\/p>\n
Tomas Principe, sophomore bachelor’s of fine arts acting major (left), and Spencer Krick, freshman theatre major, face off on stage during Project Spotlight’s performance of “Death of an Author” at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Emmy Bailey<\/p>\n
Project Spotlight presented its student-written comedy \u201cDeath of an Author\u201d Tuesday at the Alexis and Jim Pugh Theater during UCF Celebrates the Arts at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.<\/p>\n
Written by Shira Garber, senior film and mass media major, the show follows Oliver Fingershorn \u00a0\u2014\u00a0a pretentious, struggling author \u2014\u00a0and his longtime friends as they fake his death to ensure his book\u2019s success. As the story captures the internet\u2019s attention, chaos ensues, exploring themes of friendship, feminism and the media\u2019s influence on societal expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the cast, bringing a student-written script to life meant connecting with characters that were still taking shape. Tomas Principe, sophomore acting major who plays Oliver, said the role offered more complexity than it first appeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the surface, he seems like he’s just chasing fame at any cost, but it was so interesting to see why he was doing this,\u201d Principe said. \u201cHe’s riddled with insecurity, feels like he’s wasted his life so far, and wants to turn this around as quickly as possible to feel good about himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Principe credited director Maddy Poston with pushing him past an early instinct to play it safe.\u00a0Poston pushed the cast to find the intention behind every line.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter she did this, I went home and worked for days trying to give my words more specificity,\u201d Principe said. \u201cA greater backstory to Oliver Fingershorn with childhood horror stories, and wins, and all the bits and bops that drive a real human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
What set this production apart was the freedom of staging a brand-new, student-written script. With no fixed text, the cast had a rare opportunity to help shape the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoyed how open the writer was to the characters’ opinions about the character and the story,\u201d Principe said. \u201cNormally, you have no say in it because scripts are set in stone, but this one allowed lots of freedom. For example, we devised the ending.\u201d<\/p>\n
That collaborative spirit extended behind the scenes as well.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tomas Principe, sophomore BFA acting major, portrays the main character Oliver Fingershorn during Project Spotlight’s performance of “Death of an Author” at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday. Standing spotlighted on stage, he captivates the audience in the show’s final moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Emmy Bailey<\/p>\n
Erin Osborne, junior accounting and theatre studies major, served as the liaison between playwright Garber and the cast. As the dramaturg, the literary and historical advisor for the show,\u00a0dove deep into the life of the play and brought out themes and connections that weren\u2019t easily identifiable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest difference between this show and other shows that I have worked on is being able to work directly with the playwright,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cNormally, you don’t get to ask questions and work directly on the themes of the play. We spent a lot of time reading the play, digesting its themes, looking for inconsistencies and fleshing out the world of the play and its characters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Project Spotlight was founded in 2004 and is the only student developmental theatre organization at UCF. The organization aims to allow students to take part in playwriting, production and performance throughout the semester.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want audiences to see how important having good friends around you is,\u201d Principe said. \u201cI also want audiences to leave with a sense of joy from watching us have fun on stage. What\u2019s the point of acting if no one\u2019s having fun?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDeath of an Author\u201d\u00a0will be performed at UCF\u2019s Black Box Theater April 16\u201319 and is free to attend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tomas Principe, sophomore bachelor’s of fine arts acting major (left), and Spencer Krick, freshman theatre major, face off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2813,1210,139,141,140,1211,3478],"class_list":{"0":"post-224411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-life","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news","13":"tag-student_organizations","14":"tag-theater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}