[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Benedetti_Lacey.jpg” caption=”Theatre and film students Lacey Benedetti, Tyler Shearer and Sarah Midghall. Photos courtesy of Faculty of Humanities.”]Writing, directing and producing your own play is no easy feat. The Theatre & Film Studies students participating in the Honours Performance Series can attest to that, but they are certainly up to the challenge.

Lacey Benedetti, Sarah Midghall and Tyler Shearer are among a group of students selected for the Performance Series. This special honours seminar for final year Theatre & Film students allows them to take everything they've learned during their program and apply it on stage.

Jude, I Am is the last production in the 2008 series. The original script was collectively written by Benedetti, Midghall and Shearer, who each brought their unique and imaginative talents to the project.

“It has been a year-long endeavor for which no creative idea was spared,” says Midghall. “It has been an absolutely inspiring experience to watch our talented cast and live band bring our fantasy production to life.”

The show focuses on the choices everyone makes throughout life and how these choices are carried out. The three students chose well-known fairytales (Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in
Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty and The Snow Queen) to illustrate the personal issues that everyone deals with. Jude, I Am incorporates a variety of genres, including musicals and film noir, providing a strong foundation for the show.

“Go big or go home — that's our motto,” says Shearer, who, like Midghall, combines English with Theatre & Film Studies. “Independent production is a great way to start out because you're not limited by the restrictions of mainstream culture. It's from the heart and you don't have to ask, 'Is this appropriate? Does this work?' It's your own artistic expression.”

A version of the Honours Performance Series, featuring plays directed by top students from the graduating class of the Theatre & Film Studies Program, has been a fixture at McMaster since the early 1980s.

Assistant Theatre & Film professor Peter Cockett has supervised the series since 2006. A professional actor and director himself, he updated the format last year to reflect the changing pattern of both Canadian and world theatre and has made collaborative creation central to the process. He encourages students to produce work that engages the audience with significant issues in our local and global community.

Learning about theatre from the practical side is a big attraction for students. The theory they have been taught helps them move from script to stage, and makes them aware of the possible complications of putting on a production. Cockett likes seeing the students discover their own voice.

“The Faculty of Humanities does great work promoting critical understanding of culture,” he says, “and in the Honours Performance Series, the students apply that critical perspective as creative agents in the making of culture.”

Both the students and the professors want to see the Series go beyond the walls of the University into the local Hamilton community in the future.

Theatre & Film student Lacey Benedetti offers some advice to future students interested in taking this course: “Work with people who not only share your ideas, but challenge them too; who come from slightly different backgrounds and disciplines and can teach you new skills. It's an invaluable experience.”

So why go see Jude, I Am?

“It's both entertaining and analytical,” says Shearer. “You can come and see it from whatever angle you want. You'll be familiar with the songs and the situations and can enjoy the live music while supporting the student body.”

Jude, I Am will be performed March 6 and 7 at 12:30 and 8 p.m on both days in Robinson Memorial Theatre, Chester New Hall, Room 103. Admission is free and all are welcome.