Matthew Killion and Grace Kelley are two of the student directors and writers who will be participating in Suffolk University’s Spring Showcase, taking place in the Sullivan Studio Theatre from Feb. 8-11.
Produced by the Theatre Department, the Spring Showcase is described as a “festival of student-written and directed one-act plays” on Suffolk’s website.
Admission is free and tickets can be claimed through the QR code on the poster or through this link.
Killion’s play, “In This House,” is a story about a grieving man who got into an accident that led to the death of his wife. Six years to the day of the accident, that man gets a phone call from his dead wife.
“The shows are intense and deal with heavy subject matter, but I think all of them are handled with such care and responsibility by the directors that it’s going to be an incredible night of theater,” said Killion. “I think if you like stories that will handle tough subject matter with care, then you should come to the Showcase!”
Through this play, Killion wants to explore a genre that he doesn’t think gets enough attention at Suffolk: horror.
“Suffolk does a lot of student-written things but they never really go into the genre of horror, which is one of my favorite genres. I tried to implement real fear into the show as well as suspense, drama and everything I like,” said Killion.
This play was inspired by a specific type of horror called “analog horror” that Killion took a liking to.
“The main thing when I started was analog horror. I’m a very big fan of that uncanny valley creepiness, like ‘something’s not right.’ Another inspiration was ‘Manchester by the Sea’ because it’s very sad and this show is very emotional,” said Killion.
Killion isn’t the only student director at the Showcase who wants to focus on darker themes.
Kelley’s play, titled “No Evil,” will also be shown at the Showcase and will also focus on mature themes such as grief.
“It’s about coming to terms with guilt and grief, as well as learning how to overcome loss. It’s about how the only way to get through things is together,” said Kelley.
The title of this play may seem familiar to some, as the title and plot are heavily inspired by the well-known proverb “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
“I just thought, ‘Hey, it would be a fun plot for a show to have someone who’s blind, someone who’s deaf and someone who’s mute.’ So I just started working from there,” said Kelley. “So it was really just thinking, ‘Oh that’s a fun concept for actors to get to play with.’”
Although this story focuses a lot on guilt and grief, Kelley wants the audience to take away hopeful lessons from the play.
“I definitely think the message is that we overcome things together, not alone. To a lesser extent, I think there’s a message of ‘we can’t blame ourselves and harbor guilt for what is not our fault, and we have to come to terms with the reality of situations,” said Kelley.
On top of Kelley and Killion’s shows, there will also be a third play at the Showcase titled “A Dream Deferred,” written by senior Kayla Sessoms and directed by sophomore AJ Aversano.
All three of these plays took a lot of time to produce, with Killion and Kelley’s plays beginning production in 2022, so they hope people will come out to support the effort that went into creating this Showcase.
“Just speaking on behalf of everyone, this is a collection of three fantastic shows. They all deal with very serious topics but all have this line of hope, love and grief. Despite all of them being very dark, I think there’s so much love and care that comes out of them, and even more love and care that was put into them,” said Kelley.
