In a recent competition in Rhode Island, USM’s Theater Department won the Costume and Set Design categories. Corey Anderson, Kate Law and Jerome Wills received the awards. Another student, David Branch, came in third out of over 200 fellow actors in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition. According to Mary Snell, arts promotions director at USM, the department received “more awards than I’ve ever seen in my 15 years of attending this festival.” Among those honored at the festival was junior/senior Chris Gyngell, who received the National Student Director Fellowship for his work as assistant director in the student directing competition. Gyngell received the directing award and his original play “November/December” was one of two plays chosen from USM to go to the regional festival, held the weekend of January 26-30, at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Providence, Rhode Island.
During the student directing competition in Providence, Gyngell assisted Patricia Hawkridge, a professor at Salve Regina University, in a 10-minute production. “[Hawkridge] was great,” said Gyngell. “She just kind of let me do everything.” Apparently, giving Gyngell free rein was a wise choice on Hawkridge’s part, given the USM student’s success in the competition. As recipient of the Fellowship, Gyngell will get free travel, lodging and expenses, as well as attendance to workshops and performances, to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre National Festival in April.
In addition to winning the directing Fellowship, Gyngell’s original play “November/December” was selected as one of two USM full-length productions to compete at the regional festival over the course of the weekend. While “November/December” was not one of the plays chosen to go on to the national festival, the fact that it was selected for the regionals was quite a coup; only six plays from New England colleges are chosen to compete. Gyngell is also currently one of six finalists in the running for the National Student Playwriting Award-also through the Kennedy Center-going up against seasoned veterans and graduate students for prizes that include: $2,500 cash, a publishing contract with Samuel French and a fellowship for attendance at the Sundance Laboratory Theater.
For all the attention Gyngell is getting with “November/December” the young playwright insists that the script could be better. According to Gyngell, writing the first draft of the play took only four days. “I did the traditional Bohemian writing thing-no eating, no sleeping, just the play,” said Gyngell of that first draft. Over the course of the semester and the ensuing summer, he continued to reshape the script. Even with that time, however, Gyngell occasionally feels that things happened too quickly. “It’s nice that I got it out, but I didn’t have a lot of time to think about things.” Nevertheless, the result is a play that people are noticing.
Gyngell started writing in high school, beginning with poetry in a mandatory creative writing class. As a student of the Edwin O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut, the ing?nue was selected to compete in the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, held annually in Farmington, Connecticut. Besides poetry and “November/December,” Gyngell has written a play that was produced in the Black Box theatre, as well as penning a number of 10-minute plays and a couple of screenplays. So, does this mean he’s headed straight to NYC when graduation comes around?
Not necessarily. While at KCACTF, Gyngell had an opportunity to speak with Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel about what she believed was the best path for young dramatists to take. Vogel’s advice? “Take some time off-explore other things.” It seems Gyngell has taken that advice to heart. While throughout our interview, Gyngell was animated, personable and wholly well-spoken, it was when our conversation turned to astronomy that he suddenly became alive. Gesturing emphatically toward the ceiling, nearly hopping out of his seat, he confessed with an apologetic smile, “I’m obsessed with the night sky right now.” Given Gyngell’s penchant for turning obsessions into potential career tracks, I imagine we’ll be hearing about a groundbreaking astronomical discovery (the Gyngell Constellation, perhaps?) before the year’s out.