STARKID PRODUCTIONS - SPEAKS ENCOURAGING WORDS TO ASPIRING WRITERS
THE OXFORD WRITING FESTIVAL KICK-OFF AT THE OXFORD COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER
On Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 the Oxford
Community Arts Center hosted the kick-off celebration for the second annual
Oxford Writing Festival (OWF). Special guests included Miami University’s President David Hodge who gave opening remarks and a reminder that writing is all about aesthetics, communication and thinking. Following Hodge was a performance by SketchedOut - Miami University’s improvisational comedy
troupe - who performed 45 minutes of impromptu wordplay to enliven the crowd
about the joys of writing. The performance included audience participation both on and off the stage. There may have been mention of an Orange Burrito.
The main speakers for the OWF Kick-off,
following Sketched Out’s performance,
were Brian Holden, Nick Lang, and Joe Walker of STARKID Productions. STARKID is
based in Chicago, Illinois and known well for their parody musicals Holy
Musical B@man! [batman], Starship, and specifically their musical trilogy, based loosely
on the Harry Potter novels, A VERY POTTER MUSICAL (AVPM), A VERY POTTER SEQUEL (AVPS)
and the most recently released A VERY POTTER SENIOR YEAR (AVPSY). AVPSY was
performed as a theatrical staged reading at the LeakyCon convention in
Chicago, August 2012, and not as a fully produced musical productions.
~ Everything We Know We Learned by Watching TV:
The Informal Education of Three "Untrained" Writers ~
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| Pictured: Joe Walker, Brian Holden, Nick Lang |
Holden, Lang, and Walker’s talk with the Oxford community was titled,
“Everything We Know We Learned by
Watching TV: The Informal Education of Three "Untrained" Writers.” The three STARKID members spoke about their journey as writers
and performers, and how they went from average college students at the
University of Michigan to the people behind an explosive internet sensation. (Their most
recent parody production A VERY POTTER SENIOR YEAR has almost 150,000,000 views
on their YouTube channel).
STARKID Productions is located in Chicago, Illinois. Currently, they are performing their first run at a stage production not meant for film or YouTube. They've created an improvisational comedy show, Airport for Birds and Other Great Ideas, as their first sketch comedy show at the Up Comedy Club located within Chicago’s The Second City.
The New York Times has called The Second City "A Comedy Empire."
STARKID Productions is also currently working on two new projects. One of these new endeavors is a graphic novel, Quicksand Jack, written by Nick Lang and his brother Matt Lang (who was not at the Oxford Writing Festival), with illustrations by Jen Lang and Teia Smith. The other project is their next musical production Twisted – a parody
based loosely on Disney’s Aladdin, with a heavy focus on the royal vizier. Lang
stated at the Oxford Writing Festival, “We’re working really hard, because
Aladdin is a really great film. We don’t want it to just be a crappier version
of Aladdin.”
“STARKID is not in the business of just spitting out rehashed productions of the works of others - merely adding catchy
songs, and tossing it up on YouTube. Nope, STARKID Productions creates new and gut-bustingly
hilarious stories. Sometimes these stories are based loosely on popular fictional characters, other times they are completely original and created to fit into the world and better define the story the writers are trying to tell. Basically the
top three layers of any STARKID work are usually comedy, followed by a layer of
plot, original music, costumes, lighting and stagecraft, finished off with a big
fat bottom layer of subtext that pushes a deeper story into the hearts, of not
only the cast, but the viewers as well. STARKID, in its essence, reaches beyond the stars of the
stage and into the lives of the audience; encouraging and inspiring. As Nick is
quoted as saying, 'Don’t wait for other people to
tell you whether you can do something. You can do something whenever you want.' This is the truth that is evident in all of their works. Get up, do something, BE CREATIVE!” -
Andrew Lynn, Program Coordinator, OCAC
Nick Lang, one of the main writers of all
STARKID Productions gave encouragement to those inquiring about how to become
better writers. In explaining how someone can take inspiration from film,
stage, and books, “without making it dumb” Lang said, “It’s really about analytical thinking…if you are processing what you are seeing analytically you’ll have a better source for your writing.”
Brian Holden brought up the
point, while speaking of their process of creating the science fiction script
for Starship, “We weren’t happy
with the character Tootsie-Noodles who comes from Farm Planet, a planet of all
farms without any technology. When [Tootsie-Noodles] comes across this robot he doesn't realize she isn't human and falls in love with her.”
Lang added, “…which is
funny, since her programming as a robot is the desire to kill all humans...”
Holden, “… in reading through the script we thought it was horrible until we
starting thinking analytically about who Tootsie-Noodles really was as a
character and how he would react to a situation. We would all start talking in [Tootsie-Noodles’] voice all of the time”
Joe Walker jumped in to
illustrate the point with, “This toaaaa-sterrr is coooolld," in his version of Tootsie-Noodles' voice.
Holden also made the comment, “[Sometimes] we just take random
movie quotes and replace words with ‘fart’ … and it’s funny.”
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The second annual Oxford Writing Festival is a collaborative effort of various community entities organized by the Miami University student organization STUDENTS FOR THE PROMOTION OF WRITING whose sole purpose is the creation of the festival each year. OCAC would like to thank co-presidents, MU senior, Integrated English/Language Arts Education major, Megan Dincher and MU senior, English Literature and Creative Writing major, Alexandra Rogers and the rest of SPW for organizing the Oxford Writing Festival.
The Oxford Writing Festival aims to promote
and encourage writing among people in the greater Oxford community, including
the Miami student population. This festival spanned four days with presentation
and readings that included both guest writers, Miami students and Oxford community members. Other guest writers included Charles R. Scott , a
blogger at National Geographic and Kathy Wilson, writer of Cincinnati, CityBeat.com
column “(Not) Your Negro Tour Guide.” After the initial kick-off celebration at the Oxford Community Arts Center, writers spoke at various location in Oxford,
including the Lane Public Library, Kofenya Coffee, and Miami University’s
Shriver Center. Additional writers made presentations through Skype while most
were physically in Oxford for the festival.
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A song-sketch written the night before the Oxford Writing Festival, by an Oxford resident, was performed impromptu by members of Stage Left (Miami University's Musical Theater Organization), Baristas from Kofenya Coffee, OWF Team Members, Community Members, and Nick, Joe, and Brian of STARKID as an introduction to the guests.
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For next year's Oxford Writing Festival keep an eye on www.oxfordwritingfestival.weebly.com/
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