Long Story Shorts brings student playwrights together

The fourth annual Long Story Shorts show will highlight the talents of eight gifted student playwrights of the Writing for the Screen and Stage (WSS) minor program. Their individual short plays will come to life onstage tonight and Saturday night.

Ryan Passer 

Senior Passer said he has always been interested in both writing and film, and after taking several classes on the combined subjects, he decided to add WSS as a minor.

Passer’s play “Amendment” tells the story of two opposing fathers whose lives have been transformed by an act of violence. They are brought together by a congressman with questionable intentions.

Passer said he has never had his work produced before.

“I’m very excited to see something of mine put on stage like this,” he said. “I just really want to see the things that I wrote be put to life in front of me and see how that happens.”

Dakota Proctor

Senior Proctor said his play, about a guy who’s fallen off the wagon after a breakup, is the first play he’s ever finished.

A communications and drama double major, Proctor said the WSS minor program suits his ultimate career goal of becoming a writer or director of indie films.

“I sort of fell into it,” Proctor said of the WSS minor program. “It’s sort of just grown exponentially since I decided to start pursuing that as a possible career.”

Proctor said it’s up to audience members to interpret his play tonight.

“I just hope that they take away whatever message they want to take away — it’s not up for me to say,” he said.

“Once it’s on the stage it’s up to the audience.”

Corey Buhay

Although she doesn’t plan to become a screenwriter or playwright, junior Buhay’s sheer love of writing makes her the perfect student for the WSS minor program.

Buhay said screenwriting is a good contrast to her naturally wordy writing style because it is short, sweet and completely dialogue- and action-focused.

“It’s rewarding as a writer that my writing is clear enough that what they’ve imagined it as is very similar to what I’ve imagined it as,” she said. “But also looking at your work interpreted through somebody else’s eyes is really interesting and really gratifying I think.”

Eric Clayton

Junior Eric Clayton will offer the audience a change of pace with his Long Story Shorts production this evening. Clayton’s play, set in nineteenth century Britain, tells the story of policemen warding off a zombie invasion.

arts@dailytarheel.com