UPR is scheduled to play a series of productions or episodes every Friday during the month of April at 8:30 p.m. called “Playing Shortly.” This series was performed by Utah State University’s Fusion Theater Project in front of a live audience.
“Fusion is a company made up of students, professionals and faculty. We develop new work, such as plays, and produce it,” said Shawn Fisher, founder of the Fusion Theater Project.
One year ago, Fusion received a grant from the OC Tanner Foundation. The requirements for this grant included a combination of the arts with technology in some form.
“So our thought was to use the technology of radio, recording, sound editing and all that stuff. Let’s use that to help support live theater,” Fisher said.
“Playing Shortly” is made up of eight plays performed (or read) in front of a live audience and recorded for radio purposes. Each episode consists of two 10-minute plays that supply the main portion of a 30-minute episode. Four episodes will be played this month.
“We started off with almost 500 scripts, solicited from all over the country, and narrowed it down to the eight we currently have,” said Richie Call, collaborator for “Playing Shortly.”
Two of the eight plays in “Playing Shortly” were written by USU students of the Caine College of the Arts.
“I wrote a play called ‘A Thoroughfare for Freedom Beat,’ and it’s going to be featured on Utah Public Radio. I’ve never been so honored,” said Scotty Zaborski, a USU student. “It just shows that I am multi-faceted. That I am not just a 2D type of person. That I can do more than just act. That I can research and that I can publicize. I can write and be published. Fusion helped me understand all of those things.”
For now, the show will be performed regionally for UPR, meaning it will reach Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Idaho. However, according to Fisher, the show could potentially be performed on National Public Radio.
“I never thought that I would get to have an experience like that,” Zaborski said. “Fusion did things for me that I never expected. Fusion made me become a better person and with some sort of art that’s what you’re hoping for, to grow in the process.”
