New ways to learn theatrical arts are on the wax at the University these days.
The most recent addition to the University's thespian realm is the Wax Theater Project, a new student-run experimental theater company that plans to hold its first season at the University during the 1995-96 year. The company is intended to be more than another outlet for putting on plays; it is aiming to create a number of outreach programs for children and will provide its members with a more well-rounded theater education, said Trinity junior Ariel Nazryan, Wax's founder and artistic director.
About 30 students have joined Wax, and about 15 of them will live together in Port Washington, New York, during the first month of the summer producing a children's play, two one-act plays and a full-length play. With the exception of the children's play, the students' work will focus on mostly experimental theater styles. This will fill a void in the current University theater scene, as most of the plays produced through the Drama Program and the student-run Wendell Theater Group are more mainstream, Wax members said.
Nazryan said the inspiration for starting a theater company stemmed in part from seeing repertory theater company productions in London last summer.
"When you see plays done by a repertory theater company, you start to see a lot of the same faces and names," she said. "As an audience member, you enjoy the productions more because you know that the people involved are all getting along. Drama is so notorious for being bitchy and catty, so to get 17 people to live together and do four plays together makes me feel that theater is in a much better state than we think."
Because Wax will be a repertory company with the same people producing all of its works, its members will have exposure to all aspects of theater production and theater styles, Nazryan said.
"Repertory style is fascinating, especially for actors, because you wake up in the morning knowing you're doing a comedy that night and that the next day you're doing something weird and the next day you're doing the lighting for another show," she said. "I think that's especially helpful here at Duke, where the drama program is more actor-centered, because actors are learning how to do other, more technical or backstage things."
Wax members said their experiences so far have also taught them about the business end of theater.
"We've created something out of nothing, which has required a ton of initiative and a lot of learning about how to make and run a business," said Trinity junior and Wax member Jeremy Wine. "I think we'll be a lot more prepared when we graduate to do more than go to auditions."
Wax has so far garnered about $6,000 from donations and fund-raising events, but is hoping to accrue at least twice that amount before its summer season opens. To emulate a professional company as much as possible, Wax leaders are providing room and board for the 17 members who will work in New York this summer.
"We definitely need a god, a Midas," Nazryan said.
Wax is following Wendell Theater Group's lead as the University's second student-run theater group to be created in the past five years. But Wax members stressed that the two have separate goals. Wax aims to be more political and community-oriented than Wendell. In addition, Wax will have a consistent membership.
Drama faculty, particularly Richard Riddell, director of the drama program, have expressed enormous support for Wax, said Nazryan and other Wax members.
"The way Richard has envisioned and supported this project is the epitome of a faculty member's role," said Trinity senior and Wax member Barnaby Carpenter. "He's encouraged us to do something above and beyond the set curriculum."
Riddell and other drama faculty said they were extremely impressed with Wax's efforts and ideas.
"They've shown terrific entrepreneurial desires and impulses," he said. "I see this as a kind of continuation of the entrepreneurial work that was begun with Wendell, but Wax is more ambitious because it will be a repertory theater and because they'll do outreach programs and take the company to another location."
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