The creation of Voices in My Head, a one-man show

The thesis assignment began with one simple question, “Can we conceptualize, compose, and create a one-man show, where we hold an audience’s attention, for no less than 30 minutes?” We were encouraged to find a piece that we could live with over the course of the next 9-12 months. Not wanting to carry around some heavy emotional weight, and knowing that I can’t take anything seriously for more than a month at a time without making fun of it, I went in the opposite direction of drama and dove head first towards the land of comedy. From the moment that I entered LSU, George Judy, the Head of the MFA program, insisted to our ensemble that the theater is a safe place to do dangerous things. Wanting to take full advantage of the graduate school safety net, I took the leap. From the beginning, I set out to create and execute a show that could have a life beyond the LSU Studio Theater. My first swing was a 30 minute filmed sketch comedy pilot. This first iteration of my show was crushed by the weight of its own technical demands. What I ultimately created is a show that I can take to any major comedic market and perform a set multiple times a week with minimal production requirements. One man, one microphone and dozens of joke. Over the course of the next subsequent months I conceived and wrote stand-up and sketch comedy material. Some of it was horribly offensive; a lot of it was quirky, and throughout I discovered a strong comedic voice, which I suspected was always inside me. This thesis paper will document the process of creating a one-man show, and serve as the final step in three years of intense classical acting training