playbill vip

Hello and welcome to our Historic Auditorium. I cannot believe that this is my seventeenth year as the Director of Theatre for the Academy of the Arts at Fullerton Union High School. I am so proud of this program and its designation of being a Premiere Community for Theatre Education by the Educational Theatre Association.  I am also proud to be the California premiere of this production. 

A Monster Calls opened at the Old Vic in London on May 31st, 2018, and is based on the young adult novel by Patrick Ness, from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd. The original East Coast tour was cancelled because of the pandemic.

I do not want to really draw any more attention to the pandemic than is necessary but audiences have not come back to the theatre like they did before the pandemic. The pandemic changed everything we know about the theatre. In my experience seeing theatre the last few months, I have realized that so many people do not know how the theatre operates and sometimes they do not know how to behave. To be honest, this may also be because so many of us watched theatre at home while scrolling through social media and snacking—something I would NEVER do in the theatre.

In a traditional sense, theatre is a medium for which we get lost in the magic and, because of this, we stop associating performances with the numerous people it takes to make it all work. At the moment, we have over 90 students and 5 adults who have worked effortlessly to put on the production you will see tonight. Theatre takes a village.

In order to shine a spotlight on those people who make this all work, we decided to conceptualize this as a devised Brechtian performance. That is why the stage is so exposed. This production includes many re-imagined elements of Brecht’s Epic Theatre with a mix of traditional theatre that audiences are use to. The elements we have incorporated include exposing of the theatrical elements (lighting, backstage, set), utilizing gestus, or gesture with attitude, breaking the 4th wall, contrasting music with the action of the piece, shadow work, devising transitions, and the use of projections to tell the story before it happens.  I want the audience to not only be invested in the story we are telling but also to be invested in how the theatre operates and makes its magic. It is my ultimate hope that through this production we all have a new appreciation for how theatre is created use that feeling as a catalyst to support all theatre moving forward.

I want to thank Genni Klein for your partnership and creativity. Scott Hudson, Katie Hudson, Isabella Curiel,  and the B.E.A.S.T. Academy for the work they put into the Special FX makeup and costuming. Joanna Cronin, our new resident costumer, for her awesome expertise and work with our fabulous Costume Crew. Lucia Castrejon, Karissa Lentz, Edward Burton and Tommy Stecher for your time, effort and talents, stage managing this MONSTER of a production. Evan Shirk who is my technical partner and loves to find ways to execute all of our ideas. FUHS Technical Theatre especially Aiden Stepehnson and Jett Shields for all of the work you do that does not always get recognized.  

Cheers!

Michael Despars

Fullerton Union High School

Theatrical Arts Director

VAPA TOSA, FJUHSD

Past-President. California Educational Theatre Association