Organization gives undergraduate playwrights chance to produce own work
For Ohio University undergraduate playwrights, SOUP really is good for the soul.
SOUP, the Student Organization of Undergraduate Playwrights, is an OU organization that offers the Division of Theater undergraduate playwrights opportunities to write, organize and produce their own plays.
It’s one of the longest-standing undergraduate playwright groups that teaches them the real-world aspect of self-producing original work, said Erik Ramsey, head of the undergraduate playwriting program and adviser to the organization since its start in 2007.
SOUP is an extracurricular group. The work done for its shows are separate from the classwork done in workshops.
"(Doing SOUP) helps me with graded work because I can imagine how it will look and sound on a stage because I have experience with that now,” said Jessica Walters, a junior studying playwriting and treasurer of SOUP.
Beyond the undergraduate playwrights, SOUP benefits all undergraduates, said Erin Baker, a senior studying playwriting and president of SOUP.
“If (actors) aren’t cast, they want to act,” she said. “Especially with freshmen, they don’t have a lot of opportunities to act … We don’t say no.”
In the past, SOUP ebbed and flowed as Ramsey said the needs of the group change based on the members. For instance, he said if the organization is mostly full of seniors, it can be placed on the backburner as they prep for their senior thesis shows.
This year, Baker said it is SOUP’s goal to legitimize itself and garner a strong reputation as something that is a legitimate part of the Division of Theater.
“We’ve never been discounted, but we’re really trying to put ourselves out there so we’ll be well known,” she said.
One way of doing so is by scheduling a set of performances ahead of time versus putting them together when they want to do a show. The first scheduled show in September was canceled due to scheduling conflicts with mainstage callbacks for the student actors.
SOUP will make its premiere Saturday with Plays Against Humanity, a series of short plays based on the cards pulled from the game Cards Against Humanity, dubbed “a party game for horrible people.”
In the game, players try to sarcastically, hilariously or seriously match up the nouns on the white cards they’ve picked with the fill-in-the-blank phrase on the black card. The playwrights each drew two white cards to incorporate in the play, and the black card served as the overall theme for all of the plays.
Walters said she found this particularly challenging because she wasn’t initially sure how to construct the play. Though once she began writing, she said it all fell into place.
Walters’ white cards are “William Shatner” and “the female orgasm.”
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