The Conn Theater Foundation gets Guest Performers from Wesleyan

If you want to get noticed in the tough theater business, the only way to do it is by putting yourself out there.

Dylan Marron and Jo Firestone from Wesleyan University seem to be having a good start.  After writing and performing together as a part of their school’s sketch comedy group, Lunchbox, they decided to take their creativity to the next level and write a play.

“This was a particular challenge because it’s one thing to work with a group but another to work with only one other person.  There’s a lot at stake and you have to be vulnerable,” Dylan said.

Dylan and Jo had a basic sense of what they wanted for their end result; the question was how to get there.

“Most of the show is big structured improv,” continued Dylan, “so most of the writing was focused on brainstorming all the different characters. We wanted to write a two-person, multi-character play and realized that a middle school talent show would be a great setting.”

And so they ended up with “Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite,” a sort of tribute to those awkward years we all want to forget.

But writing a play is only the first step.  The real satisfaction comes from turning the flat page into three-dimensional life; that’s when it becomes about more than just the writer.

In this case, the writers are the actors as well.  Dylan and Jo play all the roles.  Their first performance was in a Wesleyan basement “usually reserved for the weekly meetings of the skateboard club“ this past April 16.

“It was great because…we believed in these characters, and then all of a sudden, here was a whole bunch of people who also believed in them.”

Conn isn’t the only place Dylan and Jo will be performing.  Their tour consists of Princeton University, Washington University, Bard College and a few theaters including two in New York City.  They are promoting their college tour through the Finanical Play’d Project: all the profit they make will go to the financial aid department of the school where they perform.

When thinking about where to take their show, Dylan and Jo considered who would appreciate their script the most.

“Our target audience is college students – people who, like us, remember their middle school years just enough to want to forget them as soon as possible.  We figured we’d find college students by going to college campuses so…hello there, Connecticut College!”

“Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite” will be performed by Dylan Marron and Jo Firestone on October 30 at 8 PM in Palmer 202.