For many people who were on campus last year, the name “Michael Steves” is synonymous with “that kid who got stabbed.” To recap those infamous events, during last spring’s production of Shoot the Duke, a play that Steves ’13 wrote, directed, and acted in, he was stabbed in the chest on opening night when a prop sword was accidentally switched with the real version.
This weekend, Steves takes over the director’s chair again with Dirty Kinky Short Plays, an original collection of one-act plays featuring topics ranging from zombies to Shakespeare. The show opens Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. in WestCo Café. Steves opened up to The Argus about the unusual circumstances surrounding his new show.
Argus: How many Dirty Kinky Short Plays are there? What are they about?
Michael Steves: There are six short plays. Subjects include sexually frustrated lemurs, two zombies on a dinner date (of human flesh), endearing, Natty-Ice guzzling bros, the marital crises of contract killers, Romeo and Juliet’s divorce, and a ca-razy [sic] Bar Mitzvah party. They’re all goofy comedies with a healthy amount of heart. The plays are generally about relationships, with each one loosely representing a stage in a romance, from meeting someone to breaking up with them and moving on. They’re all interconnected, with intersecting characters coming in and out of the six short plays. Basically, think Love, Actually but with more flesh eating zombies, Mexican standoffs, and marsupials than your average romcom.
A: I heard you were looking to have a really large cast of about 40 people. Did you get all of them? Is it hard to manage such a large group?
MS: We ended up having about 50 people audition, but I ultimately decided to cut down the cast to its current size of 27 actors…because I realized that with 40 people there would not be enough room for every actor to shine, especially those in small roles. I love working with a large cast. It’s obviously a little difficult to keep track of the schedules of 27 actors, but all the plays I’ve done have had a similarly sized ensemble. My play last year had a cast of about 20, and a similar series of short plays I put on in high school had a 30 person cast.
A: What compelled you to write and direct your own show—your second such project in as many years at Wesleyan?
MS: Basically I love telling stories, and theater is my favorite medium in which to do so. Theater is my passion, and Wesleyan offers so many great actors and tech resources that putting on a play is very manageable. I also love the social aspect of it. I met a lot of my current best friends at Wes through my show last year, and it’s a blast to get to work with a lot of them again while also meeting fantastic actors I’ve never worked with before. There’s also a practical aspect to putting on shows at Wesleyan. In professional theater, plays are often work-shopped before they are performed for the general public. Putting on a show at Wesleyan is a great way to edit a play before sending it out to contests and other theater companies.
A: How has the infamous stabbing incident from Shoot the Duke affected the way you’re putting on this show?
MS: Getting stabbed definitely gave me a much huge appreciation for stage safety. I didn’t dilute the short plays because of it, but I didn’t put a sword fight in this show—just gunfights and zombie battles. But in all seriousness, getting stabbed has been a good incentive to make sure I always check the props multiple times, take every safety precaution possible, make call before shows a little earlier, and avoid using any dangerous weapons.
A: Do you think people will treat Dirty Kinky Short Plays differently because of what happened with your show last year?
MS: I certainly hope not, but I suppose it will happen a little bit. Usually the only time the stabbing comes up is while I’m promoting the show. Plenty of people will make jokes to the effect of, “Will someone get stabbed this time?” But the jokes don’t bother me at all, my friends and I joke about the stabbing all the time (while still recognizing the seriousness of stage safety). But despite [the fact that] I got shanked in the chest and could have embarrassingly gotten myself killed, the show still went up last year and we got very positive feedback. So I doubt the incident will color anyone’s reaction to the short plays once they see them.
A: I know you aren’t putting on this show with Second Stage, which is highly unusual. Why did you choose to do this independently? Has it been difficult to get resources and funds?
MS: To be completely honest, the only reason I’m not doing this show through Second Stage is because I didn’t have a Second Stage application ready in time last spring. The stabbing incident pushed Shoot the Duke back till the very end of the semester, so by the time that show was over, the application deadline had already passed. Dirty Kinky Short Plays, however, has received a lot of support from Second Stage. Evan DelGaudio ’12 let us use shop materials to set up our stage, and Dakota Gardner ‘11 let us use Second Stage lights and taught us how to set them up. They’ve been a huge help, and the show wouldn’t have been able to happen without them. It hasn’t been too difficult to get resources and funds. All of the costumes have come from various actors’ wardrobes, and most props and set pieces have been borrowed from other students. Our total budget has been about $30 for some extra items and two meal swipes at Summerfields for a few dinner scenes.
A: Are you going to put on more shows throughout your time here at Wes?
MS: Of course! I’m working on some stuff for next semester. One play is a Western farce about a badass vigilante named Whiskey-Dick McAllister (“the only man keeping justice erect in the lawless border town of Los Townalones”) that I’m working on with Max Kaplan ‘13 and Tim Wolock ’13. Other upcoming plays will be a dark comedy about the existential crisis of an aquarium fish and hopefully my first drama, an action/suspense thriller set in 1930s Nazi Germany.