With visions of academy awards and blockbuster screenplays dancing in his 16-year-old mind, Ohio University junior Dusty Wilson was inspired to pursue red carpet success the night Matt Damon and Ben Affleck struck Oscar-caliber gold with Good Will Hunting.
I went through this phase where I thought everyone looked like Matt Damon
Wilson said, recalling his vain attempts to persuade his best friend to join in his playwriting dreams.
Upon arriving at OU, Wilson abandoned his childhood goals and declared a major in psychology. In a matter of months, however, he said he realized his career plans should once again point towards the bright lights of the stage.
As Spring Quarter progresses, Wilson, now officially a playwriting major, spends his evenings watching his first full-length play come to life in a crowded room of Weld House.
For weeks, the players of the Lost Flamingo Theater Company, OU's only student-run theater organization, have been preparing to perform Wilson's Deus ex Machina the first student-written play to be performed by the group, Wilson said.
Jes Daniels, along with fellow executive members of the organization, learned Wilson was working on the script at the beginning of the academic year. After reading the final draft, Daniels said she knew the play would be a natural fit for the character of the theater company.
Typically we as college students don't realize how much talent is around us. And it's hard to get the word out that that talent does exist Daniels said. The Undergraduate Playwright's Festival gives students a chance to display their work
but that's only one weekend out of the entire academic year. I hope (Wilson's play) will serve as a catalyst for more shows of this type in the future.
Wilson has written three other short plays, one of which was recently performed in the Undergraduate Playwright's Festival
About 16 students will take the stage next Friday with Deus ex Machina
a humorous religious commentary, in which God and Jesus run over a puppy. A series of subsequent events bring an all-star cast of religious deities together in an attempt to save the world and the fallen puppy from their ultimate demise, Wilson said.
Fueled by a passion for incorporating social messages into his work, Wilson developed the theme of the play around the concept of inter-religious cooperation and respect. Although he personally identifies with Christianity, Wilson said he essentially believes that every religion has something to offer.
The concept originally spawned from observances of Brother Jed, a street evangelist who often passes through Athens in the spring, he said.
Brother Jed enjoyed watching other religions debate openly and that kind of discussion and debate inspired me to write this play
Wilson said. I really tried to have every religious figure display admirable qualities. If all the world's religions got along
we could solve a lot of our problems.
Though he is currently watching his creation come to life from the sidelines, Wilson has actively participated in Lost Flamingo productions in the past. An avid actor since his high school days in Johnstown, Ohio, Wilson performed in Sociability and Naomie in the Living Room with the theater company.
Through involvement in Comedy for the Masses, an OU organization that allows students to
perform original comedy and stand-up, Wilson said he sharpened his distinctive comedic skills, which participants say are utilized heavily in the script of the upcoming production.
It's an excellent play and it's been a lot of fun to be involved with
said Alex Breech, an OU junior portraying the man whose dog is run over by God. It does a really good job of hitting on a lot of religious issues without offending anyone. It's definitely up there on the weirdness scale. Anyone that knows Dusty at all can see his sense of humor in this play.
Deus ex Machina will be performed Friday, May 21 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, May 22 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Bromley Hall.
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