Student Profiles: Alice Shen
My
research involves rigorous people-watching. And not in a creepy way
I hope. As a playwright, I try to notice everything about what people
say and how they say it, and conversely, what they don’t say and how
they don’t say it. (I’m using “say” as a coverall
term for “convey.”) My foray into playwriting and drama
started when I realized my short attention span for novels (odd considering
I had chosen a major in English) and that when I read conventional prose, I
had a difficult time imagining characters, places, and actions in my mind. This
explained my penchant for movies and television and I would vehemently defend
these ‘lazy’ artforms simply because I
found myself more engaged when viewing them — paying attention to cinematography,
script, and performance. Key word: performance. A play isn’t
done after you pencil in LIGHTS FADE. A play demands to be performed. A
voyeuristic art surely, and that, I suppose, is what leaves plenty of room
for both the experimental and the mundane.