The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
Justin Spanbauer, senior drama major at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, is producing an original play, Mars Lost.
Mars Lost tells the story of a woman who was elected to participate in a mission to colonize the planet Mars, leaving Earth behind forever.
“It’s the story of her as a person, a character study of someone who would make the choice to do that,” Spanbauer said. “It’s the story about a woman confronting the things she has on Earth and why she might want to start over on Mars.”
Spanbauer wrote the first draft of Mars Lost in a playwriting course on campus. The assignment was to write two original plays and one inspired by an outside work. Spanbauer was inspired by the Mars One organization when he read an article about the project.
“It sounded interesting, and I put together a synopsis of a play that would be about that,” Spanbauer said. “And as I thought about it in class and worked on it, I thought it was actually a really interesting topic. And I just kind of made it my own from there.”
Though Spanbauer went into the project expecting to focus on his two original plays, he found that Mars Lost had more to it than he originally realized.
“It’s about founding Mars and colonizing it,” Spanbauer said. “However, the play is in a lot of ways about loss and how different characters deal with it, losing things or hoping to find things. It’s all about people experiencing loss and how they deal with it and what they’re looking for.”
As Spanbauer worked on the play in class and received feedback from his professors and classmates, he began to consider taking Mars Lost from the page to the stage in the form of a senior project.
The play continues to be modified in the transition from script to a live production. The original 30-page manuscript has been expanded to better reflect Spanbauer’s vision and he feels he has hit his creative stride with Mars Lost.
“It’s not done,” Spanbauer said. “It’s never really done. But I’ve gained the craft and dedication to make it something rather than by necessity. I’m doing it for passion.”
The production of Mars Lost has proven to be a complex undertaking. Spanbauer’s cast and crew consist of eight actors and four designers coordinating the 17 scenes of the show that all take place in different locations.
“The most challenging part is just all the circumstances that go into making a full-scale production,” Spanbauer said. “We have sound design and light design and the best set design that we have the means for doing. We’re all students. No one on staff is dedicated to helping us. There’s limited amount of resources that we have available and also a limited amount of time and help. It’s an ambitious project with a low amount of resources.”
The team consists completely of people who volunteered to help Spanbauer’s vision become a reality.
“Basically, I assembled my team based on people who wanted to help me,” Spanbauer said. “Even if they didn’t know what they wanted to do, I said, ‘If you want to help, I’ll find something for you to do.’ We’ve pooled our resources of all the people and put them in a combination of people doing what they can.”
Spanbauer cited the willingness of others to help him as one of the key aspects of the production’s success.
“If you’re willing to put in the time and ask for things and put yourself in a position to talk to people and ask for help, you can do big things,” Spanbauer said.
Photo by Mary Knight.
Mars Lost is being produced in association with Players, a Student-Artistic Alliance at UWSP. The student organization promotes performance on campus and in the community.
“They want to see student works grow, and they want to help with that, and that’s awesome,” Spanbauer said. “So they’ve helped me design posters. They’re helping me with promos and publicity because they have a much wider net than I do. They’re helping me with staffing the shows with ushers. Everything that makes a production a production and I don’t have the time or capabilities to do.”
Spanbauer attributes the smooth development of Mars Lost to his support system and all the collaboration he has had.
Spanbauer also addressed why theatre is an important element of community.
“Theatre is something that people can come together and experience a story or a point of view or a piece of art or something that makes you think. I think that’s important to create dialogue,” Spanbauer said. “Presenting ideas and concepts and theories that people should confront and think about. I think it’s the perfect way to do that, to put those ideas out there.”
Mars Lost will be performed Sunday, Dec. 4 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. as well as Monday, Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Studio Theatre of the Noel Fine Arts Center. Admission is free and open to the public.
“It’s important to support student work,” Spanbauer said. “It will surprise people. Student work may have a bad connotation to it. Community theatre might have a bad connotation. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not worthwhile. I would ask that people have an open mind about it and come see it and give it a shot.”
Kathryn Wisniewski
Reporter
kathryn.e.wisniewski@uwsp.edu
