Gentry: And now Great Arts at Eastern, from the Portales Campus of Eastern New Mexico University. I’m Jeff Gentry, Dean of the College of Fine Arts here on KENW, your Public Radio Network. Today. My guest is Aric Saiz, a senior theatre major at ENMU. Thank you for joining me today.
Saiz: Hi, thanks for having me.
Gentry: So, Aric, you have been a mainstay on the ENMU mainstage for some time now. How much have you grown in your professional development over the last four years?
Saiz: I’d say I’d. I’d grown pretty much. Before I came to Eastern. I was just mainly just an actor and that’s what I wanted to focus on. But. Going through this department, I was able to focus on other things like stage managing and directing, writing just the different aspects of theater.
Gentry: Great. Well, before you graduate in May, you have a new comedy Dining In: Pas de Deaux. Did I pronounce it correctly?
Saiz: It’s Pas de Deaux.
Gentry: Pas de Deaux OK, so we’re going full on French. Is that the idea?
Saiz: Yes basically.
Gentry: OK. So, Dining In: Pas de Deaux will be performed at ENMU Studio Theatre Tonight. You are a playwright and director. Is this culmination of your experience as exciting as it sounds?
Saiz: Oh honestly, it really is like? This project is completely mine, like from start to finish and like it’s just it’s been a thrill being able to work on it.
Gentry: Fantastic. Tell our listeners about this story that you’ve created.
Saiz: So, it’s based in a restaurant. It’s just conversations that may happen inside restaurant. It gets pretty wacky, just a variety of different groups, and it’s not like one set storyline. It’s like several storylines within one show.
Gentry: And acting in this play are a who’s who of the ENMU stage. Does it feel good to know you have the participation of a lot of our top students.
Saiz: Yes, honestly, a lot of them are my peers like I’ve been going. I’ve been going to Eastern with a lot of them throughout the years and. I know if they can do and it just made it that much easier for me to work with them.
Gentry: I can vouch for the comedy chops of your cast. So, are they getting everything out of your script in rehearsals that you’re hoping for?
Saiz: Honestly, yes. Like they are doing such a great job. I came in with a very raw script, like I had just finished it right before we started rehearsals, and they’re- they have taken what I have given them and they just sort of ran with it and it’s- it’s just, it’s really good.
Gentry: How family-friendly is tonight’s play?
Saiz: I- I’d say it’s pretty friendly, friendly. There’s not very much a profanity in it. I think there’s just like one- one word like here and there. Not much adult content. It’s just different everyday happenings.
Gentry: And how has Professor Anne Beck helped make this play a reality?
Saiz: She’s well, for one, she’s provided the actors ‘cause it’s- it's her class that I came into and directed.
Gentry: The open lab class?
Saiz: Yes, the open lab class, the theater 402. She- she’s been very she’s been sort of like my mentor through it off. Like she- I came to her with this concept and we sort of built from there. She had me write the script for her. And we’ve just gone through the script. She helps me with edits and what sounds right. What will actually work, and it’s been really good.
Gentry: Thank you, Aric Saiz for joining me on Great Arts at Eastern. Dining In: Pas de Deaux is tonight for one night only at 7:00 PM in the Black Box at the University Theater Center in Portales, New Mexico. Admission is free to the public. For all the Great Arts at Eastern see enmu.edu/FineArtsEvents. Thanks for listening on KENW, your Public Radio Network.
