Does Gen Z still need superheroes? Students and faculty in Texas A&M’s College of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts are raising the question in their premiere performance “SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO.”
This past weekend the play debuted in the Black Box Theater to three sold-out audiences. The college’s new bachelor’s degree — fine arts in theater — requires Devised Theater Studio, a course where students create their own work from scratch in a collective way — a concept named devised theater. The eventual result from the first semester was “SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO.”
The play strays from the usual scripted work, using the devising approach to create a collage-like experience that explores the importance and consequences of the lives of superheroes in the modern world.
Creator and director george mcconnell — who prefers the lowercase version of his name and is an associate professor of devised theater — has worked with devising for over 20 years, introducing his style to Aggieland at the beginning of this semester.
“In some ways, it’s easier to start with a scripted piece because we already know what it is,” mcconnell said. “It already exists. Devising takes extra time. It takes extra work because you have to build the show from not existing. But we decided that if we’re going to really focus on devising, then this first piece should be a devised piece.”
A typical college play rehearsal length is four weeks, while devised plays can take years to complete. The “SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO” troupe devised a play from start to finish within eight weeks.
Performance studies sophomore Alessandra Balassa explained that the approach in her previous play, Pride and Prejudice, was more straightforward, and there wasn’t an aim to create anything new. As a creator and performer in “SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO,” Balassa and a team of five other students had to develop an entirely original work, bringing their own ideas to shape a unique story centered on superheroes.
“But in this one, it was kind of that feeling of, ‘Yes, I am the actor, but I am the character as well,’” Balassa said. “So it’s an interesting blend of things … it’s given me freedom of finding what’s important for me to show the world.”
Rayna Middleton Dexter, the play’s interim program director for undergraduate theater and costume designer, was a key figure in the building of not only the show but the construction of the theater program.
“What’s the kind of work that we want to do?” Dexter said. “ … I knew that I did not want that answer to be the same thing everybody else was doing … That’s not the world we live in now. We really thought about that and came up with the answer that we wanted to focus on new and original works. That’s something that isn’t a focus of any other undergraduate theater program in the state of Texas and almost anywhere else in the United States.”
The play’s focus on experimental theater emphasizes a fluid performance that incorporates different genres and differs from naturalist plays. “SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO” not only focuses on experimental play, but its devised origins make it a specific reflection of all the creators and crew members involved, distinguishing it from other performances.
For Dexter, that distinction came from incorporating inflatable superhero costumes and her own creative works into the show.
“I’ve been having fun thinking about childhood a lot, thinking about little kids that dress up as superheroes and the feeling of power that it gives this child, who probably has very little agency in their life to control the world around them,” Dexter said. “But you tie a bed sheet around them as a cape, it makes them feel like they have the power. I think it’s that experience that I’ve been trying to tap into while designing.”
Another unique aspect came from the concept of superheroes itself, mcconnell said. He had worked on previous plays with the imagery of superheroes that inspired and led to “SUPERHERO & SUPERHERO.”
“In 2019, when [“Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame”] came out, Marvel was at their peak,” mcconnell said. “And so many people had gotten invested into these movies who had no interest in comic books previously. They were capturing something in the popular imagination of spectators in these movies, and so I started wanting to make theater that was in conversation with that larger thing that was happening.”
For Balassa, the unique aspect was the opportunity for performers to respond to the director’s prompts and suggest ideas that would be integrated into the show.
“One of the first things I proposed was that my superpower would be gaslighting,” Balassa said, “ … because you kind of never think that gaslighting can be used for good, which was interesting to both do and perform.”
A vital aspect of devised theater is that every work is different. It is a method of creation that cannot be replicated by two different groups of individuals, as the performers and creators make the piece unique.
“This is a play that will give you a different experience,” mcconnell said. “It is fun and it is thoughtful.”
