This past February, a group of USC theatre students, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Theatre Initiative, performed the neo-futurist experimental play “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” at Thymele Arts in East Hollywood.

A collection of 30 short plays done in 60 minutes that changes depending on who produces it, the group’s unique version of the show was programmed by director El Belilty and assistant director Brooklyn Nelson. Out of a crop of 90, they chose 30 plays that covered the entire range of the human experience. The central focus: comedy.

“I think that humans are just humorous people. That is the way that we cope with trauma, that is the way that we cope with being alive,” said director El Belilty, a senior majoring in theatre. “That’s what really draws me into something, is if it’s both real but humorous.”

The weekend previews were a trial run for the group, who in August will be heading to Scotland to perform the show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest performing arts festival of its kind and the early stomping grounds of hits such as “Fleabag” and “SIX: The Musical.”

Levi Sternshein, one of the performers, is a freshman studying theatre. He plays around a dozen roles in the show. 

“What’s really cool about the production is that even when you’re not in a play, every ensemble member is always on stage,” said Sternshein. “When you’re in the background of someone else’s play, you’re also actively engaging with [their] world.”

Sternshein, with a background in sketch comedy, joined the production through the USC branch of the LATI, a touring company focused on advocating for up-and-coming artists at the high school and university level. LATI takes shows to Edinburgh to expose the young performers and open them up to the larger world of new, challenging and visionary theatrical works.

“It’s a really exciting place that fosters so much creativity. I’m excited to show our unique artistic perspective … and see all the other wacky shit that people are coming up with across the world,” Sternshein said..

“Too Much Light” is part of this very wacky crowd. It is a show that relies heavily on audience participation. 

“We have 30 plays hung up on a number line with clothespins. We go up to the audience and ask them for a number … we pull the number, announce the play that’s associated with that number and then we do it,” said Rafi Perez, a senior studying theatre and one of the emcees of the production.

“My favorite part [of this process] was when the audience started coming in, and I got to see their reactions and how they participated … because that was always the unexpected part,” Perez said.

The audience has always been a consequential character in the play. Though it started being performed in 1988, the fast-paced, choppy structure of the show and its interactive, choose-your-own-destiny nature has taken on new meaning in 2025, as Gen Z fights for longer attention spans in the age of short-form content.

“I feel like as a community, we should explore these shorter forms of entertainment for the stage because we want to keep people coming back to the theater. We want them to stay interested … and if that means evolving with the times … it could be worth it to revive live theater in L.A.,” Perez said.

“I think it will also open many doors for more individuals to want to go see long form theater,” said Brooklyn Nelson, a junior studying theatre as well as the assistant director and stage manager of the play.

As the group heads into a months-long hiatus, although most of the show will remain the same, Belilty and Nelson are still looking into how certain jokes may land overseas.

“Cultural references are not going to be the same for the Scottish audience, so we’re going to alter some of those [pieces],” Nelson said.

The power of experimental theatre is in its malleability and ability to defy convention and expectation. Neo-futurist theatre strives to blur the boundaries between performer and audience. It also comes with the power to bend time. “Too Much Light” stays relevant because it can always be set in the present.

“Societally, we see [theatre] as being such a formal version of art. But now [new theatergoers] can get involved with it because our piece of theater is so informal,” Nelson said.