The Thalian Blackfriars, seen performing “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” are an all-student group of theater enthusiaststhat has been around for more than 70 years. Its long legacy of performance on stage has informed its inclusive approach now: anyone who cares is welcome. ALLISON LOVE/Staff

Where there’s a will, there’s a play.

“We are here to make dreams come true,” said Nathan Cowling, president of the Thalian Blackfriars and third year theater major.

The Thalian Blackfriars, a student-run extracurricular theater club, listens to the artistic voices of its members — and for a few chosen students per year, the organization makes theater dreams a reality.

One such student, Kayla Sklar, who is also the organization’s secretary, had her dreams of directing the play “Speech and Debate” realized earlier in the semester.

It all began when Sklar visited New York City and attended a performance of the play.

She immediately connected with it.

“I feel like a lot of times there are plays and movies that do not portray teenagers accurately and the dialogue is not accurate. A lot of the time it is really dumbed down,” Sklar said. “‘Speech and Debate’ is a really funny play. The way they speak is realistic, but it also has its own poetry to it, and I really liked that about it.”

Sklar felt a passion to produce the play, but she couldn’t do it by herself. So, when she found a welcoming group of friends in the department, it just felt right.

“I first got the idea to do ‘Speech and Debate’ around this time last year,” she said. “I was doing a show with the University theater and I was surrounded by all these really cool people. I thought it would be great to do a show with all these people … and I thought this would be a great place to show it.”

The fire Sklar felt for her work is key to getting something produced by the Blackfriars.

“We want people to do things they are passionate about and have an emotional or psychological attachment to,” Cowling said.

The organization organizes as many shows as it can afford per year, with funds coming from the student activities program at the University.

“The Blackfriars have been a really great resource,” Sklar said. “The people involved are really dedicated. They allowed me not only to get the word out about auditions, but they also helped with the budget and helped with tech people to get lighting for the show.”

The resourcefulness of the Blackfriars is essential to creating a performance, but the group focuses most on providing a sense of open community and family.

This sense of connection that group members share was palpable in the room recently during a rehearsal for the Blackfriar’s latest performance, “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” a trial drama about the crucifixion of Jesus and question of Judas’ guilt.

Before rehearsal began, the cast mingled and laughed together sharing stories of the day, melding like a rambunctious Italian family. Even Tressa Preston, director and third year MFA Performance student, could barely settle the cast.

But when she did, the respect within the group was mutual -— everyone in the room was an active participant in the rehearsal, giving pointers and asking questions to further the development of the play and characters.

This group, however, is the newest in a long line of generations.

And like a family, the Blackfriars never forget the story of its beginnings.

Before there ever was a theater program at the University, it’s said, there were the Thalians and the Blackfriars, formerly two separate organizations which joined in 1931.

The well-known stories of the organization’s development are now even cause for a bit of hubris — and it will always be proud of the time it produced shows to benefit the athletic association.

Now, the ’friars include undergraduate students, but it works together with graduate students occasionally on its periodic productions.

“The graduate performance students have really taken it upon themselves to support the group; that’s really made a difference — to have older adults who they look up to involved,” said George Contini, the faculty advisor to the Blackfriars and a University theater professor.

“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” directed by Preston, was one such production, allowing a mix of generations to work together.

“The Thalians have been around forever and are highly respected around campus,” Preston said. “I had a project that I knew would take a lot of manpower, so they seemed to be doing a great amount of work and very supportive of different kinds of theater.”

The Blackfriars main focus is to produce student-initiated works throughout the year, but an annual event called “Telling Tales” — in which many short works, all originals written by students, are performed — serves to visualize the open creativity fostered by the group.

“It is like a mini-theater festival of student-written work,” Contini said. “It is my favorite show every year because I just love to see what the students come up with.”

The leaders of the Blackfriars hope its accepting atmosphere will provide a free creative space to allow students the freedom to express themselves.

“Everyone is different,” Cowling said. “There is no race, religion, sexual orientation here. When you come to the door you are a person; you are an artist. As an artist the two most important things are honesty and self-awareness — that you can be true to yourself and true to the art form, and to bring a piece of yourself to the character. That makes it real to everyone, and you realize who you are as a person.”

Cowling and Paige Pulaski, vice president of the Blackfriars and a third year mass media arts and theater major, have both been involved in the organization for three years; and throughout their time the pair has helped to nurture many students into freedom in the form of theater.

The medium is the message.

“I like it when we have people who really like theater but have always been afraid to try it,” Pulaski said. “It is a really open forum. It is a big collaborative effort and we want different types of people because they bring their own ideas and we collaborate and create really beautiful theater and works of art.”

Along with that sense of collaboration comes an openness to the group’s structure.

The Blackfriars is a casual group getting together to make art; there are rarely formal meetings.

So, with the will of members as the only driving force behind all productions, a dedicated group of leaders is essential to success.

Contini has advised the group for about seven years and has witnessed both extremes in leadership styles.

“It constantly changes; it ebbs and flows because it is a student-run organization,” he said. “There’ll be a strong period where the students are really committed. When they have a strong leader they will produce a lot more and a lot better quality. Right now it’s one of those periods … It is really interesting to see that.”

The leaders of the Blackfriars have created a home for creativity — whether they are to direct, to act, to produce or to write for the theater. The most important thing for the group isn’t what it does, but where.

“We want to give you creative outlets to show what you’re thinking and feeling — an open forum with no judgment where you are allowed to create in an open space,” Cowling said. “That is the most important thing: to give a space to be true to yourself.”

It is an opportunity, a space, that is not usually given.

And taking it requires only a little courage.

“This is your chance to experiment and to shine and really show your stuff,” Cowling said. “It is a chance to say, ‘Hey world, look at me. This is what I’ve got.’ As a leader of this organization, I feel a lot of pride toward the people involved and keeping their goals alive. We’re like proud parents.”

THE THALIAN BLACKFRIARS

Contact: thethalianblackfrairs@gmail.com for more information