Robert Flaherty Hart is the youngest of three children -- a girl and two boys -- and the adult siblings did lose their mother while he was writing his first dramatic script.
But he swears any resemblance between his real life and his master's thesis play, "Poor Relations," is purely coincidental.
FAQ
‘Poor Relations’
WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Saturday & 2 p.m. Sunday
‘V Is for Violin’
WHEN — 7:30 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Saturday & 7:30 p.m. Sunday
WHERE — Kimpel 404 on the University of Arkansas campus
COST — $5-$10
INFO — 575-4752
"My sister is coming from Ohio to see it," he says of this weekend's production. "I'm sure she'll know it's fiction!"
In the script, which will be presented with full staging, the three adult children do come together for their mother's funeral -- and old, ugly family issues rear their heads. The middle son has been estranged from both his siblings but most violently from his younger brother. Now, "he has come into a great deal of money and is more or less trying to buy his way back into the family," Hart explains.
Hart, who already earned a master of fine arts in acting at the University of Arkansas, is completing his master of fine arts in playwriting. This production, directed by professor Mavourneen Dwyer, is the first time he'll see his work fully realized, and he admits it's both exciting and terrifying.
"The strangest part as writer is just going to be sitting in the back row, shivering," he says.
Also sharing the weekend with "Poor Relations" will be another master's thesis project, "V Is for Violin" by Brittany Taylor. It follows a young photographer as he faces the possible disintegration of all he holds dear, after taking a brilliant -- but brutal -- photograph of a starving child in the Sudan. The production is directed by Kholoud Sawaf, who also directed "A Doll's House" and "Time Stands Still."
Taylor, who has a bachelor of fine arts in musical theater from Abilene (Texas) Christian University, agrees with Hart's assessment.
"It's so terrifying," she says. "But it's really cool to see something that only lived within your imagination have a heartbeat."
Taylor says she wrote her play in one 12-hour session when she was 19. Now, she says, finding herself a playwright is like "realizing that your childhood playmate is also your soulmate."
"I feel so fortunate to be learning a craft that I don't think I would have chosen for myself but makes so much sense now that it's happening."
The Studio Series, now in its second year, is intended to draw attention to student works, according to Michael Riha, chairman of the theater department.
"Students' enthusiastic responses to the shows (usually held in Kimpel 404) led us to believe there might be additional patrons out there who would be interested in this small, intimate theater experience, quite different from the University Theater stage," Riha said when he announced the new outreach to playgoers last year.
-- Becca Martin-Brown
NAN What's Up on 09/26/2014