Students feature college theatre in comedic series

Schedules packed with filming, stacks of scripts, delicate camera equipment — Mary Bronaugh deals with these on a daily basis. Bronaugh, a sophomore majoring in writing for screen and television, has been creating the first season of Ensemble, a comedic mini-series that features diverse characters and is centered on the dramatic ongoings of the college theatre community.

Labeled as “faster-paced and less self-deprecating than Glee, and less cheesy and more self-aware than High School Musical on its website, Ensemble communicates the competitive atmosphere sometimes found in the performing arts through “mockumentary-style confessionals.”

Bronaugh conceived the idea for the show last year in class, and with the help of approximately 200 people from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the USC School of Dramatic Arts and USC Thornton School of Music, she was able to transform her dream into reality.

“Everyone was willing to start trying things,” Bronaugh said. “People just ended up getting involved because everyone wants to work on projects. That’s one of the benefits of going to a school like this.”

The production team has encountered several bumps while working on Ensemble due to a lack in funding, Bronaugh said. However, with fundraising through Indiegogo, an online crowd sourcing campaign creator, as well as help from family and friends, the team has been able to raise money effectively and efficiently so far.

To fund for the rest of the first season, the team received financial support from Undergraduate Student Government.

Bronaugh assembled a team of interested students to create Ensemble. One producer, Maya Vyas, a freshman majoring in writing for screen and television, originally became involved with the project as a production assistant to learn more about the process of show development.

Initially, Vyas was only looking for a learning experience and was excited to take any opportunity to get a closer look at content creation. However, she quickly fell in love with the project and took on a bigger role in the show’s development process.

“I wanted to take a stab at some more responsibility,” Vyas said. “Mary took a liking to me and started to give me more opportunities to test my work.”

Another show runner alongside Bronaugh, Lexie Chu, a sophomore majoring in cinematic arts, film and television production, is the lead series producer. Chu’s passion for theatre prompted her to become involved with the production of Ensemble.

“I was so excited to jump on this project because I lived and breathed theatre all throughout high school,” Chu said. “With Ensemble, it was a great opportunity to bridge the gap between theatre and TV, two of my favorite things.”

The development and production process for the show has been an ongoing effort for approximately one year. The members of the team are constantly faced with new challenges  and obstacles to overcome.

“While the process can be exhausting, such a thorough method ensures the best final product for the show,” Chu said.

However, the team agrees that putting in all of the hard work is rewarding when the end result is considered.

“Some of us have been working non-stop on the project since last January because we want to see the project through to say that we made something cool, funny and meaningful,” Chu said. “We’re so excited to have a visual product that hopefully makes people laugh.”