/Describing/ Last semester on October 9th, my boyfriend and I attended the production of "Stupid F---ing Bird by Aaron Posner" performed at Studio 88 by the Miami Department of Theatre. We just went for fun, not knowing anything about the actual play. I once practiced lines of this piece with my friend, and came away from that thinking it was a comedy. This was NOT a comedy. Before the show started, all actors were passing out playbills, and responded to people coming into the studio as their characters, not themselves. They took on the attitude of the people in the play. The playbill gave us the insight on things that may have been slightly adapted from the original production, and the show included original music composed by the actors as well as different interpretations of a few scenes from the original show. It also included various interaction with the audience where there would be long pauses of silence with the on stage actors waiting for the audience's response (they didn't move on with the show until someone responded. Some of that took a while.) The description of the performance provided by the Department of Theatre is as follows: "Love, death, beauty, despair and one unfortunate seagull collide in this unabashedly provocative riff on Chekhov’s classic. Con is a burgeoning playwright in love with his ingénue; his mother, an aging actress, is involved with a famous novelist; the novelist, in turn, is increasingly enchanted with Con’s girlfriend; and everyone else suffers on the sidelines. Chekhov’s characters still ruminate on love, revolution and the pursuit of happiness, but this time convention is severely compromised." (I wish I had known this information before, because honestly it would have better prepared me for what I was about to deal with emotionally.) /Interpreting/ Having the characters passing out playbills rather than just someone not in the show giving them out was an interesting way to meet the characters before we saw them perform on stage. Even when we greeted someone who we knew, he acted as though he never met us before and didn't know why we called him by a different name. All of them took it very seriously and played it out well. It added an extra layer of depth to each character. While I often feel like added original songs are unnecessary and tend to take away from the show rather than add to it, I will admit that the lyrics of each song they performed set the mood for the scene that would directly follow. There were also many times where actors would go off-stage and perform dialogue in different places in the audience, or sound effects would be heard to inform us that something happened. This added to the overall effect of having the audience be included in what was transpiring on stage/off-stage. Many times when the characters would speak, it would be as though they were speaking directly to us rather than to another character on stage. At the end of the show especially, this played a large role in havin.

1. /Describing/
Last semester on October 9th, my boyfriend and I attended the
production of "Stupid F---ing Bird by Aaron Posner" performed
at Studio 88 by the Miami Department of Theatre. We just went
for fun, not knowing anything about the actual play. I once
practiced lines of this piece with my friend, and came away
from that thinking it was a comedy. This was NOT a comedy.
Before the show started, all actors were passing out playbills,
and responded to people coming into the studio as their
characters, not themselves. They took on the attitude of the
people in the play. The playbill gave us the insight on things
that may have been slightly adapted from the original
production, and the show included original music composed by
the actors as well as different interpretations of a few scenes
from the original show. It also included various interaction with
the audience where there would be long pauses of silence with
the on stage actors waiting for the audience's response (they
didn't move on with the show until someone responded. Some of
that took a while.) The description of the performance provided
by the Department of Theatre is as follows:
"Love, death, beauty, despair and one unfortunate seagull
collide in this unabashedly provocative riff on Chekhov’s
classic. Con is a burgeoning playwright in love with his
ingénue; his mother, an aging actress, is involved with a famous
novelist; the novelist, in turn, is increasingly enchanted with
Con’s girlfriend; and everyone else suffers on the sidelines.
Chekhov’s characters still ruminate on love, revolution and the
pursuit of happiness, but this time convention is severely
compromised."
(I wish I had known this information before, because honestly it
would have better prepared me for what I was about to deal with
emotionally.)
/Interpreting/
Having the characters passing out playbills rather than just

2. someone not in the show giving them out was an interesting way
to meet the characters before we saw them perform on
stage. Even when we greeted someone who we knew, he acted
as though he never met us before and didn't know why we called
him by a different name. All of them took it very seriously and
played it out well. It added an extra layer of depth to each
character. While I often feel like added original songs are
unnecessary and tend to take away from the show rather than
add to it, I will admit that the lyrics of each song they
performed set the mood for the scene that would directly follow.
There were also many times where actors would go off-stage
and perform dialogue in different places in the audience, or
sound effects would be heard to inform us that something
happened. This added to the overall effect of having the
audience be included in what was transpiring on stage/off-stage.
Many times when the characters would speak, it would be as
though they were speaking directly to us rather than to another
character on stage. At the end of the show especially, this
played a large role in having the audience believe there were
things we could have done to change the outcome of the story in
some way. The inclusion of characters speaking to and
convincing the audience that we were a part of the show added
to the experience of watching their story.
/Analyzing/
Not knowing what this production was about and believing it to
be a comedy I feel had greatly changed the way I felt during,
and after the production. The performance was very VERY dark
and brooding, and thought provoking. My boyfriend and I have
both struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts on
different occasions, and at the very end of the show when we
were left to wonder whether or not the main character had killed
himself, we both had nothing to say. We left the studio and said
nothing the entire way home, then came into my room and just
cried for probably a solid hour (honestly I'm getting emotional
just thinking about it). The show portrayed love and loss in such
realistic ways that it resonated with us very deeply. It gave us

3. the progression of mental illness and it almost felt like we were
watching ourselves and learning how we came to feel the way
we do now. At the end of the show, I don't remember if anyone
clapped or not. I don't know if it was because I was so lost in
my own mind after the ending, or because everyone else was
too.
I would and would not recommend this event at the same time. I
didn't like the way that I felt (and the way I feel remembering
it), however I believe the performance is truly thought
provoking, and it does make you think about where your life is
at right now. In a way, it opened a door for my boyfriend and I
to talk about the struggles we had and were having in that
moment. Just be mentally prepared. It isn't a comedy.