CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“Good theater is when you forget you’re watching a scripted performance, getting lost in the story and relationships of the people onstage. This show has that potential,” Justin Clark, FCRH ’14, said in regards to the upcoming Fordham Experimental Theater show A Boat on the Shore.

The straight-play, co-written by FCRH seniors Ryan Creamer and Steve Tyson, tells the story of two very distinct brothers that are brought together after 26-year-old socially successful, but professionally unsuccessful Chris Harnett—played by  Clark—is kicked out of his parents’ house and forced to move in with his awkward younger brother Patrick, played by Joe Gallagher, FCRH ’15. The brothers’ relationship grounds the show and gives the play its uniquely realistic perspective.

Co-writer Steve Tyson says, “A lot of times in families, you have siblings who you would never be friends with in the real world, but that is kind of the beauty of being family with someone who is different from you. You grow as a person because they are different from you.”

“Steve and Ryan have something really special with this script,” Clark says. “The relationship between the two brothers…is grounded and real. There is a perfect combination of real-life problems and comedic relief [that] makes the play come alive in a way I never expected.  Sometimes a play will pick one or the other, [but] real life never chooses between the two. We can laugh in times of hardship and be down when everything seems to be going right. Steve and Ryan managed to capture that balance that exists in the real world. Nothing is forced, everything is natural.”

Such believability in the show’s storyline proved to be a key goal that came naturally to the duo as they wrote the script.

Creamer notes, “We started with a different idea: a show that was a lot more silly—kind of nonsense funny—but we decided to change it to [be] a little more dramatic. We wanted to do something different, because FET has done great comedies, but one thing that hasn’t been done in FET [is] a dramatic, student-written realistic piece.”

Tyson says,  “People will expect it to be funny, because they know us as goofballs—and that’s not a bad thing—but there’s something to be taken from material that’s vulnerable. We tried to establish a sense of realism.”

In the end, the team agrees that everyone should go see the show, as it’s “a good story” and “a relatable story” that will serve as proof that “drama is not this cinematic difficult thing. It’s transcribing reality to the stage.”

The play will definitely be a show that you will not want to miss. Accordingly, remember to head down to Rose Hill’s Black Box Theatre to see Justin Clark and Joe Gallagher along with Julia Webb, FCRH ’16; Marisa Schmidt, FCRH ‘15; David Portmore, FCRH ’14; Devin Chowske, FCRH ’14; Jamie Flanagan, FCRH ’14; and Nicolo Chulo star in A Boat on the Shore, premiering on Oct. 17 and running thru Oct. 20, all at 8 p.m.