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Student-produced drama to explore human vulnerability

April 26, 2011
	<p>Theatre junior Scott Long acts out a monologue for his character, Inferno, during a rehearsal for the play “The Outstanding Eight” Tuesday night at the Auditorium. The play opens at 8 p.m. Thursday and runs through Saturday at the <span class="caps">RCAH</span> Theatre in the basement of Snyder and Phillips halls. The play revolves around eight superheroes who cannot stop a terrorist attack on the Empire State Building and the aftermath of the event.</p>

Theatre junior Scott Long acts out a monologue for his character, Inferno, during a rehearsal for the play “The Outstanding Eight” Tuesday night at the Auditorium. The play opens at 8 p.m. Thursday and runs through Saturday at the RCAH Theatre in the basement of Snyder and Phillips halls. The play revolves around eight superheroes who cannot stop a terrorist attack on the Empire State Building and the aftermath of the event.

Photo by Lauren Wood | The State News

Recreating the pages of a comic strip into a believable stage production can be an uphill battle. But if you ask the creators of the latest student-produced play at MSU, it’s a task they have completed successfully.

“The Outstanding Eight,” a performance about the lives of superheroes, will debut at 8 p.m. Thursday in the RCAH Theatre in the basement of Snyder and Phillips halls. The production, which has about 20 cast and crew members, also will run Friday and Saturday night at the same time and location.

In the performance, eight original superheroes cannot stop the destruction of the Empire State Building when it’s attacked by terrorists. Each superhero reacts to the fact they could not prevent the attack and are humanized in the process, as the audience realizes even superheroes have problems.

Gabriel Cooper, a theatre sophomore and one of the play’s directors, said the play exposes the vulnerability of people who might seem above the rest.

“The whole point of the play is to prove that these aren’t special people,” he said. “These are just people with problems who happen to have super-human abilities.”

Cooper said the creative process of developing the powers for the eight superheroes was fun but also demanding, since each character’s powers are supposed to reflect the character’s personalities and problems.

“They each have their own separate scene that takes place in the play,” he said. “They each talk about how their superhero has affected their (lives,) and it progresses and pushes the storyline along.”

The play, which began as an idea last summer, has been funded and promoted by former MSU and NFL football player T.J. Duckett. He said he discovered the production on Facebook and sought out the creators to help.

Duckett said the play’s characters drew him to the project.

“I like superheroes,” said Duckett, who has been involved in many local charity and community events. “When I was playing football, it was like I became a different person on game day. A lot of those times it was having strength, like the Incredible Hulk.”

Because the show was produced entirely by students and was not affiliated with any department at MSU, being involved was difficult but gratifying, Emily Suarez-Junquera said.

The media arts and technology senior is a stage manager for the production, which makes her responsible for coordinating rehearsals, assisting actors and keeping order amongst the cast during performances.

As someone who works closely with all of the actors, Suarez-Junquera said the directors made no mistakes in casting.

“The entire cast fits their characters so well,” Suarez-Junquera said. “For it being the first interpretation done (of the script), I think it’s perfectly cast.”

Gabriel Cooper’s brother, Jacob, who is an advertising and theatre senior and graphic artist at The State News, also directed the play and said despite the play depicting superheroes, the performance incorporates much more than just action entertainment.

“It has a lot of different colors to it,” Jacob Cooper said. “It’s darkly comedic and is dramatic and emotional. It’s a little bit of everything.”

For Duckett, it’s the combination of genres that makes the production a positive influence for the MSU community.

“When you come to see the play, you get to see MSU and (its) students at a high level of work,” Duckett said. “The play isn’t just an action, there is feeling involved — there (are) truths, and that’s what to me, brings it all home.”

For more information on the play’s cast and crew, visit outstanding8.com.

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