'Monsoon' to blow through

Student-written, directed play to run

“Monsoon” will run April 6-11 at 8 p.m. at Theatre II and tickets are $3.

The play is an experimental production written and directed by senior Adam Enatsky, a student playwright and producer. “Monsoon” portrays — through the use of monologue and flashback sequences — the story of a now-deceased drug addict and his attempt to combat his dependence, according to Enatsky.

The lead roles are played by seniors Brandon Stacey and Malia Hall.

Enatsky, who won the JMU Film Festival in 2002, sought to find a new medium to display his writing, according to Enatsky. It was decided that theater, since it was more actor-based than film, was the way he wanted to achieve this. He then wrote “Monsoon” in August while riding the metro up to Washington, D.C. for his summer internship. He was unable to completely escape his background in film-making, and some of that shows in “Monsoon.”

“I was still in movie mode when I wrote this,” Enatsky said. “It has 22 scenes, which is very unusual for theater.”

Writing and producing the show was quite a daunting task for Enatsky. “I knew that JMU has a program that allows students to propose shows to direct so I submitted a script,” Enatsky said. “The hardest part was shopping for a theater faculty advisor. Nobody knew who I was since I was an ISAT major.”

Eventually Tom Arthur, a professor in the school of theatre and dance, read the script and found it worthy of being produced.

Despite backing from Arthur, “Monsoon” just narrowly made it to the stage. The faculty panel that decides which plays to include in the spring 2004 season of experimental theater voted a 8-7 decision in favor of “Monsoon.”

Auditions were the most stressful part of the production, according to Enatsky.

Since the majority of the characters in the original script were male, and most of those in JMU’s theatre program are female, some role-switching was necessary to create more female characters.

As a first-time director, Enatsky says he owes a lot to his cast and crew for helping him.

“The cast has been indispensable,” he said. “They added style to the show and depth to the characters by the use of costumes, makeup and lighting design. The actors were an integral part of the whole play — they bring life to the characters.”