The Plays
Rue42 Photography
Daughters of Skye
In the fall of 2025, Osseo Drama took on the task of building a play of their own design from the ground up. With the support of the publisher, we pilaged Charles L. Mee’s Big Love by shifting the genre, location, cast size, and overall concept to a much darker, sinister, magical tone. The show took place within an enclosed runway setting, placing audience members in full view of the action and intimately witnessing a story about the autonomy of young women and the rage and violence of vengeance.
Alongside 30+ students, Caleb developed an ensemble based show with a visceral atmosphere based in the magic and witchcraft of Scotland’s Isle of Skye. Through the use of Charles Mee’s text, classic Greek mask work, contemporary music, puppetry, and live musicians, audiences were transported for 100 minutes to an eerie world built by and for the students involved.
An excerpt from the Director’s Note: “What we have discovered, along with these students, is that the veil between horror and comedy is thin and easily manipulated. The stakes in both are amplified, the language is heightened, and everyone means what they say. The difference lies in whether the audience is invited to laugh - or to look away…What began as a desire to create a Halloween horror piece has grown into something far more potent — an exploration of power, autonomy, and the fragile control we cling to in a world that seems intent on taking it from us. We want to scream. We want to fight. We want to run. And that is where Daughters of Skye lives — in the space between terror and defiance, where survival becomes its own act of rebellion.”
Neil Simon’s Rumors
Fall of 2024 took Osseo Drama to a classic 1980’s comedy by prolific playwright Neil Simon. As a lesson in classic farce, physical comedy, and building small ensembles, Rumors was a perfect platform to reintroduce the world to a redundant piece in a new way. Shifting to a world within a life-size Barbie Dreamhouse, students and audiences were pushed to create a physical language that spoke to the larger-than-life characters. What followed was an endless discovery of the perfect melting pot of comedic gold that went together almost too perfectly!
Produced in a thrust-like setting, audiences were invited right into the Dreamhouse and “think pink” for a 2 hour peformance.
Peter Pan
Fall 2023 sent students flying off to Neverland (or, in our case, to the Underground of London) in J. M. Barrie’s classic tale of wonder and what it means to release your childhood and finally grow up. In an emotional 2-hour journey presented in the round, students transported audiences into the makeshift bunkers of WW2 London at the time of the Blitzkrieg bombings. Peter Pan shifted to become a story of resilience in times of worldwide struggle and how play and stories help to comfort and connect us.
Through the use of specific movement, atmospheric music from the 40’s-Today, and more than a couple of mattresses, 25+ students brought new life to an ageless story and sold out audiences.
From the Director’s Note: “Imagination and play are two of humanity's most powerful tools in times of trouble…in times of tragedy, [these] moments of play become vital for survival and connection. However, as we grow, our escapes to Neverland become more distant, and the imagination we took from our parents can morph into generational trauma that we carry for them. Before we know it, our times of playing pirates with our parents are gone…Osseo was ready for a new challenge, and creating a conceptual devised work in the round proved to be just that.”
Frankenstein by Victor Gialanella
In it’s first venture steeping into a new presentational style, Osseo Drama took on Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Frankenstein in fall of 2022. At once, a lesson in classic literature and gothic structure, and breaking down stereotypes by shfting the genders of the show to play with both masculine and feminine concept. Osseo took the classic tale to the French Quarter to breathe new life into a classic tale of godlike power and prejudice.
Presented in a runway setting, the show split the audience down the middle and filled the space with dark jazz and jumpscares galore. Frankenstein became a perspective piece on the alienation and otherness we see in the world around us presented with an emphasis on ensemble storytelling and intimate settings.
From the Director’s Note: “Some may argue that prejudice is a part of our human nature - that it is and always will be part of us. We are all capable of creating outcasts and we are all capable of becoming them… The Frankenstein we have discovered holds a mirror to all of our ugliness, pressuring us to question how our biases and prejudice force the violent hand of those we deem as “less than” until they commit acts that we feel justify our hatred allowing us to continue holding them in a place of worthlessness. The volatile xenophobia that has become the painbody of America drives the heart of this piece and asks us all ‘what part do we play in the violence?’..And what a better time and place to explore that than the French Quarter of 1920’s New Orleans. A time of hiding, comradery, racial and social divides, crossing gender lines, and the darkness of back alleys and bars perfectly suited for Shelley’s rich characters.”
Not Featured:
June July August - 2021
Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville - 2020