Theatre Students play
selected for national finals

Adam Harrel, a theatre major at Boise State University, is

taking theatre at BSU to a whole new level.

Originally from Louisiana, Harrell is a transfer student from

Centralia Jr. College in Washington. Harrell recently finished

writing his play, Alone and Hated. This is a special piece for

Harrell and BSU because it is a national finalist for the David

Marc Cohen award for playwriting. The award is a reading-based

honor that the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. presents to the

finest play written nationwide. Harrell’s play is also

currently in the running for the National Student Playwriting Award

and the Mark Twain Award for comedy.

This week the cast and crew will take the play to the American

College Theatre Festival. If they do well in the regional finals,

they will head to Washington D.C. for the national festival.

Harrell wrote Alone and Hated as a one-act play for the Theater

Majors’ Showcase last spring at Boise State. He has spent the

last several months working on it and turning it into a full

production. He entered it into the festival in December, which

started the excitement for the play.

Last Sunday, Harrell and crew put on a benefit performance at

the Morrison Center. All proceeds went directly towards arriving at

the festival.

“Alone and Hated” is a comedy about a film writer

who is riding on the success of his last piece. As the play begins,

the audience sees him working on his next big “Hollywood

movie.” As the writer searches to find the perfect ending to

his story, he finds that everything he writes leaves the main

character of the script “alone and hated,” just as he

is himself. In his haste to finish the film, he pushes away

everyone that is close to him. Now he must resolve his own selfish

isolation before he can tackle the script.

Alone and Hated is a far cry from Harrell’s first play,

“Love or Baseball,” which he was just happy to see

performed at the junior college level. Love or Baseball may be a

dark part of Harrell’s history, but Alone and Hated is a

shining example of the student’s capabilities.

Harrell credits a great department and a talented cast,

including Luke Masengil in the lead role, for the success of his

play. He doesn’t mention the presence of well-developed

characters and an intriguing plot, but rest assured, “Alone

and Hated” has all the elements to do well at the American

College Theatre Festival.

Trever Alters
A&E Writer
The Arbiter

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