Oak Ridge’s Own Shakespeare

February 8, 2012
Filed under Features

Over the past month, a word or two has probably been said Senior One Acts, which are plays put on by seniors in Theatre on their terms. Usually, the seniors pick a play already written and have it performed and designed their way. Well this year, senior Josh Hundl decided to take the not-so-normal-or-easy approach. Hundl wrote and assistant directed his own play, simply because he wanted to.

“Finding a script is really hard to do because there are so many bad ones out there. Plus, I like writing so I figured it would just be easy enough to write one. That way, I can make the play suit what we needed, so just finding a play and settling with it didn’t seem good enough,” Hundl said.

Composing a play doesn’t sound like a walk in the park, either. It takes an immense amount of time, dedication, and creativity to completely come up with an entire production worthy of being performed. For many high school students, coming up with an idea for a college essay is hard enough. A play includes characters, a plot, a setting, while also making it fun for an audience to watch. Not all of his ideas were entirely original, but he gathered a few ideas (with a few inspirations) and created the exact play he imagined.

“I wanted to write a romantic comedy, so I googled romantic comedy, and I found a movie named Romantic Comedy. Ironic, I know. So I took a few ideas from the production, and spent about three weeks to a month writing my own,” Hundl said.

As cliché as romantic comedies are, Hundl’s play took a spin on things. His production is far from the Hollywood love stories you see in movies, but still has the cute, sentimental touch seen in theaters.

“It’s about a guy and a girl that are writing a play together, that end up falling in love. And what is happening in their play directly parallels what is happening in their lives,” Hundl said.

To write a play, you have to enjoy the act of writing first. Fortunately, Hundl has that admiration. To do something you love and watch it on stage was a dream come true to him, but picking his favorite part of writing as well as assistant directing was easier than putting his words on paper.

“I just liked being able to come up with whatever I wanted. It was so awesome to me. It’s actually what I want to do for the rest of my life. I like writing essays and stuff because I love playing around with words, but I hate having a set of rules and guidelines to follow, so it was fun being able to do whatever I wanted in the play. And when it came to rehearsal, I loved seeing my words come to life,” Hundl said.

But as much as he loved the process, there are some things Hundl wasn’t a big fan of.

“Considering I spent such a long time writing, the worst part was the lack of sleep and decline in my grades. And since I didn’t direct the play, it was hard letting someone else take control of what was essentially my baby, so I just sort of had to sit back and trust that they knew what to do,” Hundl said.

It’s one thing to write a play that you like, and another to impress other people with it. In Hundl’s case, he killed two birds with one stone.

“Prahl, my theatre teacher, said he wants to help get it published, so I am currently working on that. So far nothing has been done because it isn’t formatted correctly, there are certain playwrighting conventions that must be met before I can do anything, but we’re trying our best to make it happen,” Hundl said.