A few weeks before the Fall 2024 semester finals season, the AUR Dramatic Arts Club showcased four original plays written, directed, and acted by students. The four scripts this semester were all written by EWLP majors Liliana Zimberg, Nalu Gruschkus, Lucia Guerrieri, and Mia Vujicic. An evening at Teatro Testaccio provided students and faculty the opportunity to enjoy tremendous student creativity and take a well-deserved break from piles of study guides and computer-screen headaches.
The student-led club has roughly twenty student members, including the co-presidents Liliana Zimberg and Mia Vujicic, the script writers, directors, actors, and tech team, without whom no theatre production would exist. All the students band together as a community with a common goal; give the audience a great show. That’s exactly what the cast and crew of ‘Glimpses of Us’ achieved on November 19th thanks to the guidance of Liliana and Mia. This was Liliana’s last show with DAC; however, she is leaving it in the capable hands of Mia.
As the audience took their seats, Mia advanced up the aisle as a granddaughter who had recently found her late grandmother’s diary. As she flipped through it, she explored the trials and tribulations of a full life characterized by the four dynamic scripts.
The show opened with ‘animus,’ written, directed, and starred in by senior Nalu Gruschkus. It portrayed a tense face-off between childhood friends turned adult enemies in an intense corporate setting. A long-awaited confrontation unfolded between the two women amid poignant reflection on their younger selves, ultimately concluding in the power play that soured their relationship all those years ago. This was Nalu’s third and final show with DAC both as a writer/director and actor. She expressed that she wanted to explore female power in ‘animus,’ and specifically how it is perceived between women. “I think that it is especially difficult for women to be taken seriously in corporate settings, or, generally, in workplaces that are male dominated, so I wanted to tap into that tension and emotion that women in positions of power face.” Since Nalu was involved with the club for three consecutive shows, she advises anyone interested in writing for DAC to, “write something that you’re proud of, because that will translate to everyone involved.”
Next, Lucia Guerrieri’s ‘Apple’ transported the audience into a lively Gen Z fairytale land characterized by foot fetishes, Charlie XCX, and a rambunctious squirrel. A lovestruck, silky haired princess and her homely best friend lose sight of their friendship when the pot-smoking, vapid prince tickles their fancy in different ways. In the end, the princess and her best friend agree that their love is more important than lusting after the
prince with the most beautiful feet in the land. This was also Lucia’s third time writing for DAC as well as doing backstage work for the props team. She said that she wanted her contribution this semester to be something whimsical and light while dealing with the multilayered aspects of female friendship. As a seasoned script writer, Lucia suggests to “always put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to experiment with different genres each semester and surprise yourself with where the script ends up.”
A brief intermission welcomed Eden Liu to the stage to sing ‘All of Me’ by John Legend. The emotional cover left the audience in a vulnerable state of mind for the sinister and jaw-dropping content of the third show.
‘A Collection of Letters Smudged by Tears’ written and directed by co-president Mia Vujicic gut-punched the audience that was still processing Eden Liu’s angelic rendition of John Legend’s ‘All of Me.’ In an interrogation room, a woman was being questioned about the disappearance of her sister who was expecting a baby with her boyfriend in the military. As a result of some rookie mistakes, the interrogator realized that the woman had murdered her sister because she was in love with the boyfriend. Mia was involved with two previous DAC shows as a writer/director and actor before being promoted to co-president for this production. She expressed that this script was inspired by, “the overwhelming feeling of loving someone under unchangeable circumstances.” This was her second script with DAC, and she found the writing process particularly empowering if you treat it as a means of witnessing your ideas come to life with the help of fellow creatives.
The other DAC co-president, tech manager, and senior Liliana Zimberg closed out the show with ‘Camp!’ wherein a rowdy group of friends ventured in the woods for a last hooray before going their separate ways. The scene opened with the celebration of a birthday and bro talk of a surprise proposal. After several separate heart to heart conversations about the romantic fate of the birthday girl, the truth came out about the new couple that had formed in the friend group. Everyone could breathe easy after the ex-boyfriend supported his ex-girlfriend in her new relationship with a woman. This was Liliana’s first and last script with DAC as she graduated this semester. She was involved in four productions over the course of her time at AUR, mostly remaining behind the scenes as tech manager and props master. She has been a co-president of DAC for the past three semesters, so her absence will be felt. Her script was inspired by a couple of ongoing projects, so she decided to pull her favorite elements from the two and make something goofy yet sincere. She expressed that, “the goal was to identify those things we generally keep to ourselves even though our friends will always support us and are probably doing the same or similar things we may feel unnerved about.” Liliana went on to express gratitude for her how her cast proactively worked together to breathe life into the longer piece.
The writers of ‘Glimpses of Us’ demonstrated their artistry and ability with the four dynamic scripts of the Fall 2024 semester. The Dramatic Arts club at AUR is open to all students as it encourages anyone from any major to explore the multifaceted art form, learning from one another and collaborating in the process. To learn more, visit the activities fair that is held on campus during both Spring and Fall semester to sign up and in the meantime visit the instagram page @aur_dac to learn more! We hope to see you at auditions!
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