06/04/2026
Throw Back Thursday 🦅
An Exploration of the Human Experience: Directing II Showcase Highlight
History has long debated the meaning of what it is to be a human being. A simple answer would be “to experience consciousness, emotional depth, social connection, and moral reasoning, shaping a unique identity and shared humanity,” as Google defines it, but this broad definition touches just the tip of life’s iceberg.
With every new generation comes a new wave of ideas from thinkers who shift the social climate into a new era of living. In this current era, overrun by the emergence of AI and dependence on technology, the blossoming young minds of students in UNT’s Directing II course have something to say about what it means to be human now.
For their showcase, directors Carver Olson and Emily Vidaurri utilize their respective pieces of devised work to give their definition of human life and how to nurture it: by connecting, not with our devices, but with each other.
Olson, who has been directing plays since his junior year of high school, wanted to make a collaborative statement with his actors about being human.
“We’re doing fully devised work, and for my group, we each wrote a piece based on our concept, which is What Makes A Human Being,” Olson says. “We wrote short scenes (some are more like poems, scenarios, and movement pieces rather than realistic scenes) on what separates humans from animals and humans’ relationships to various concepts, such as civilization, war, art, information (social media), artificial intelligence, and future.”
The emphasis on creative collaboration for this showcase drew Olson closer to the piece, as it connected to the overarching theme.
“It's different because we don't have a set scene to do; we have to create the ideas through collaboration with directors, media arts contributors, and actors,” Olson says. “We worked collectively on writing our scene, so my favorite part about it was writing the scene because I loved hearing what other people had to say and figuring out how to implement their ideas.”
While the writing process for the piece was fruitful, the greater problem of time constraints began to take root.
“We had a week of planning/education, a week of rehearsals, and a week of tech to finish the project,” Olson says. “It was tough, but since we were writing it, we could tailor the piece to the amount of rehearsal time we had.”
Despite the worries about time, the style of the piece lent itself to the process of what Olson wanted to create.
“The biggest difference between a published scene and a devised work is that in a devised work, there is nothing to adhere to, and nothing holding you to a convention,” Olson says. “Devised work is improvisational, spontaneous, and creative.”
As the theme of his piece is so intricately connected to humanity, Olson wants the audience to leave with each other in mind.
“I hope [the audience] examine the way they think about other people,” Olson says. “Our piece is about human nature, from failure to triumph; I hope it instills empathy in people.”
In her devised piece about human connection, Vidaurri felt it mutually beneficial to her herself, as well as her actors to create their piece from the ground up.
“One of the biggest things is, this isn’t as plot driven, which is nice to break away from, especially if you do a 10 minute scene as opposed to a 10 minute play, you have to find a beginning, middle, and end, whereas there’s not really that expectation here,” Vidaurri says. “It’s also easy on the actors for lines, because since they wrote their own piece, they can kind of flub the lines a little bit, because they know what they’re trying to say.”
Through this collaborative effort between herself and her actors, Vidaurri has gained a deeper appreciation for directing.
“I love directing, and I just love seeing the end product, especially because it is devised, meaning we can keep adding things; it kind of changes things and creates new ideas,” Vidaurri says. “We came up with this really fun flower idea and watching it start off the page with nothing and then become what it’s going to be at the showcase is so fun, and it feels fulfilling for the actors to be having a good time.”
Because of the devised nature of this product, Vidaurri seeks not to make a loud statement but to leave the audience reckoning with how it makes them feel.
“You don’t have to worry about the audience understanding it, it’s more about the feeling that will show them the meaning,” Vidaurri says. “It’s more fun because you can have a bit more freedom because you don’t have to stay true to a playwright; if we want to change something we can because we made it.”
For Vidaurri, she hopes that the feeling the audience receives is one that we can extend to both ourselves and others.
“Human connection is so important in our lives and that’s how we move through life,” Vidaurri says. “I think some people can take for granted how important they are—even the negatives ones. They change you, and they help you learn how to interact with the world around you and how to love yourself more.”
Through both of these pieces, and more, this generation’s idea of the human being contributes to us all understanding this life, and more importantly, how to connect to those who are living it with us.
✍️Joshua Baker
📷Emily Williams
