USI Theatre will perform its last show of the academic year, “Devised Theatre Project.” April 14-16 in the Mallette Studio in the lower level of the Liberal Arts Center.

Tickets are free for all attendees, including non-USI students and faculty. Tickets can be reserved via email. 

Gavin Carter, junior theatre arts major, said the “Devised Theatre Project” is not one connected story but 14 distinct scenes that do not connect with each other.

Carter said the “Devised Theatre Project” is based on a series of games created by another theatre actor.

“It’s based off a work that this man did, and his name is Paul Walker, not the ‘Fast and the Furious’ guy,” Carter said. “But he pretty much created these games, and through these games, you get to a point where your state of mind is just so relaxed, and you feel so free that you want to create like anything.”

The scenes created by the students were based on various experiences, but they could also be about anything.

“Sometimes they were based on the student’s own experiences, one is based on a dream that someone had, one is based on their own life with their family,” said Paul Wiemer, interim chair of performing arts.

Weimer said having the ability to do anything can be daunting. 

“When you can do anything, it’s very daunting because you could do anything, and therefore, how do you filter down to sort of do that,” Weimer said. “That’s a big part of the process.”

“That’s why they spent a week or four days doing a workshop just sort of brainstorming ideas,” Weimer said.

Weimer said the “Devised Theatre Project” is an ensemble show. Despite this, there are only a few scenes in which all the actors appeared together.

“Even though it’s very much an ensemble show, few scenes actually have everybody in them,” Weimer said. “Really, only the very beginning, the sort of introduction and the end scene. Most of them are three or four people, or sometimes only two.”

Dakota Smith, sophomore theatre arts major, said the “Devised Theatre Project” will be around 45 minutes long.

Smith said it is hard to compare the challenges of doing a 45-minute show to a longer show because each has different challenges.

The “Devised Theatre Project” will be the first time the theatre department will perform in the Mallette Studio since the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mallette Studio is a smaller theatre than the one in the Performing Arts Center.

“I think it sets up a different expectation both for the actors because they don’t have to feel like they have to perform and fill a huge space,” Weimer said. “Also, for the audience coming in. It’s not a grand space, it’s quite a neutral space, and you sort of have a different expectation when you walk into that theater versus the big theater, and it also means that you can have fairly intimate moments.”

Smith said the smaller theatre allows the cast to have more intimate performances.

“It’s just so much more intimate and personal,” Smith said. “If someone said you could be on Broadway, or you could go back home to Florida and perform in your favorite black box theater the rest of your life, I would pick the black box because it’s personal.”

“We have a moment in the show where we can look at the audience and not just be like, ‘Oh, there’s people there,’” Smith said. “We can be like, ‘Oh, we can see the wrinkles in your face.’ For me, there’s something beautiful like that intimacy that’s there.”

Weimer said he hopes the “Devised Theatre Project” encourages theatre students to create work for themselves.

“They can be creators as well as actors, and I think that is where our culture is going,” Weimer said. “I think that’s where theatre is going. I think that’s where American culture is going. Because we’re so driven by social media, which is all about content creation. So the hope is that the actors realize that when they leave here, if they really want to go on into professional theater or into performing arts or whatever, that they are not just waiting around for a phone call, or when going to the next audition that they are actively creating work maybe just for themselves, maybe with a group of people.”

Weimer said he hopes the audience gets “a sense of how things are created.”

“It isn’t just a play, it isn’t just a theater event, it isn’t just picking up a printed script and memorizing your lines and going out and saying them,” Weimer said. “I think that’s what a lot of people think theater is, and there’s some truth to that, but it can be more personal than that.”