Honors student writes and directs own play for class

By Jen Colletta
Collegian Editor
April 26, 2006

Rarely as students do we get the chance to incorporate our own talents and interests into our projects. We may do hours of research and even more hours of tedious writing, but the end result is usually something in which we may not have any personal interest. For one junior, however, a school project has become the culmination of her passions, skills and interests.

Leyla Eraslan is a member of the Honors Program, which dictates that its members must complete an Honors Project before graduation. The project is very open-ended, but should have some relevance to the student’s goals after college. Students are given an entire semester to compile an in-depth, scholarly work.

Eraslan, who has always had an interest in theater, decided to completely create her own theatrical play and produce it for the La Salle community.

“Since you can do almost anything with your Honors Project, I knew I wanted it to be something creative, because in all honesty, the idea of a 60-page research paper is about as appealing as a lobotomy,” Eraslan said. “I was involved in theater in high school, and I love seeing plays. It seems to me that every college student is involved in theater, considering the massive amounts of drama that we go through.”

She had “bits and pieces” of the play in her mind, and figured that the Honors Project afforded her the perfect opportunity to work with those ideas.
All semester long, Eraslan has worked writing, directing and producing the play, which she titled Tom and Janet. In order to recruit actors, Eraslan posted fliers, announcements on the portal and even sent Facebook messages.

“I didn’t get a huge turnout, but luckily, the right people showed up,” she said.
Eraslan said that the cast, comprised of freshman Sam Fran Scavuzzo, junior Kaitlyn Reidy and graduate student Rebecca Ehrlich, have all been “so dedicated and supportive.”
In addition to working with the actors, Eraslan also had to advertise for the play, secure a venue for the performance and even film parts of it.

“The filmed segments are integrated into the performance, so it should be pretty unique,” she said.

Eraslan compared her play to Ghost, sans Patrick Swayze. It follows the life of a married couple, Tom and Janet, after Janet’s death.

“This guy is trying to get over the death of his wife, which is particularly difficult with his wife still,” she said.

Although the workload has been overwhelming, Eraslan is very happy with the decision she made to undertake the project. With only several days until the opening night, Eraslan compared herself to a “mad scientist” who has been working furiously for a successful creation.

“It’s been more work than I’ve ever done for anything, but it’s all work that I’ve wanted to do,” she said. “It’s been more rewarding than anything I’ve ever done in my college career thus far. I don’t think I would have gotten this feeling from a paper and ink project.”

Tom and Janet will be performed from Thursday, April 27 to Saturday, April 29 at 8 p.m. in Backstage.

collettaj1@lasalle.edu