USC Libraries, SDA partner to create student flash plays
Students might soon get used to plays spontaneously popping up around campus, as USC Libraries and the School of Dramatic Arts has partnered up to launch a new series of flash plays.
Director Jonathan Munoz-Proulx, who is also a recent graduate of the School of Dramatic Arts, said the first flash play, was held Thursday.
The play was held outside Doheny Library and was inspired by the quotes along the walls of the library. Flash plays, similar to popular flash mobs, seemed to be a natural fit for the series, Munoz-Proulx said.
“The key is to keep talking, keep moving, so that we are constantly pulling focus and attention and keeping the audience engaged,” Munoz-Proulx said. “It’s a very spontaneous, off-the-cuff, somewhat improvised experiment — just embracing the spontaneity of what might happen in the moment.”
Flash play organizers said a central goal of the series is to engage the student body and incorporate more student involvement with the libraries on campus.
“I meet a lot of students who don’t realize we have libraries other than Doheny or Leavey,” said Catherine Quinlan, dean of USC Libraries, who was co-organizer of the series. “If we presented the library in an exciting and innovative way to our student body, we might have a really good chance of having them come to us.”
Oliver Mayer, a professor in the School of Dramatic Arts who was also a co-organizer, said the series will make the library seem more exciting.
“The idea is to have fun and alert, particularly, the undergraduates to how cool the libraries are and that the libraries are there for them,” Mayer said.
Mayer said that he expects the number of plays in the series to eventually exceed 20, matching the number of libraries at USC. The frequency of the plays is planned to increase this August, as students return for the fall semester.
“The idea is that each play will relate to the [specific] library, but my hope is that it will be in an unexpected way, not just a straight-down-the-middle, obvious thing,” Mayer said.
Quinlan said the series will ideally draw more crowds to the library.
“I thought, ‘why can’t we combine creativity and the element of surprise,’ which really is what libraries are all about in my mind,” Quinlan said.
A mix of undergraduates, alumni and celebrity actors, including David Zayas, an actor on the television series Dexter, will contribute to this project, Though many people are involved in strengthening the series, Mayer stressed the role undergraduates have in contributing to the stories.
“We’re going to have a bunch of people come in and do stuff just to get people excited,” Mayer said.
“But the primary goal is to have undergrads do this work.”
Quinlan said USC Libraries has tried drawing more students in through exhibits, such as the fractal display in the lobby of Doheny which opened in September 2012. However. she hopes this series will prompt students to consider libraries in a new light and inspire creativity in the libraries’ outreach programs.
“I’m hoping that doing this will spur some other ideas from other people about how we can continue to bring the library to the students in a way that makes them surprised about what we can do,” Quinlan said.
Mayer noted that the theme of the series fits well with the overall mission of USC to offer an interdisciplinary experience to students.
“This is probably the beginning of the relationship between the School of Dramatic Arts and the libraries,” Mayer said, “but it’s really what President [C. L. Max] Nikias and Provost [Elizabeth] Garrett want from our schools, our faculty and our student — to be able to connect, be interdisciplinary and have fun doing it.”