It started as a wacky idea. And then maybe not so wacky--a documentary drama telling the stories of the witnesses, first responders, and survivors of the attacks on September 11, 2001. My colleague Greg Parmeter jumped on board and we were off. Seven students enrolled in a special topics course to create a script. Sometimes in person and sometimes on Zoom, ideas turned to plot cards covering the walls of our classroom, and then to a script. By Thanksgiving we knew we had something special, and by the end of the spring we had a premiere date.  

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Dramaturgy work on this show came in two parts. First, helping the writers understand something that happened when they were too young to know about it, and then figuring out what to include and how to structure the play. Once Theatre & Dance chose to make the show our first full post-COVID show for live audiences, then part two began: helping a separate group of student actors, and a largely student audience, understand both the story and how we had chosen to tell it. Along the way we were honored to have some UWL personnel share their own experiences, and we were joined by a remarkable team of colleagues to design the show.  Dramaturgy flowed into projections design, and I found myself taking on a new role to make visual dramaturgy an essential part of the scenic environment.

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Severe Clear was selected as a regional finalist for the Kennedy Center American College Festival's Region III event. From there it went on to win eleven national honors including Special Achievement for the Production of a New Work, Special Achievement in Ensemble Performance, individual honors for Direction, Dramaturgy, Lighting Design, Sound Design, and Projections Design, and the Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Award.

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Explore the production by visiting the dramaturgy site and the documentary produced by Jeff Kerkman about the process. Both are linked below.