Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) El-Erian Family Acting Conservatory students proudly presented a world-premiere original play, “Cutthroat” this month in the Margaret A. Webb Theatre. This multimedia show escapes into a dystopian future where networks control the world.
The playwright and current OCSA Acting Junior, Aidan Lindsay, has gone through a long process before seeing his idea come to fruition on the stage. Through the support of his friends and instructors, he has developed his craft as a writer and actor, leading to the debut of this innovative production. Lindsay shared some of the journey that led to this play being produced by his teachers and peers, as well as his long-term goals for the show and his writing.
This interview has been edited for brevity.
Please tell a bit about the play, the themes, and what inspired you to write it.
I started writing this play a long time ago. I was in tech for a show, “Nicholas Nickleby” back in 8th grade, and I had this idea. I've always been a lifelong writer— I always loved the idea of writing plays and scripts. But this is the first one I made that was solely original. The process of writing it took a long time, and we had a bunch of these really amazing workshops with some really talented people.
The show's really a kind of a satire on government and kind of the current state of American politics from what I can deduct and from my own experiences and from an outsider's perspective, because, obviously I'm 17. It's really about different forms of it and how you can have a really dangerous rhetoric spewed by people in power. That's kind of where the character Kather comes from. The characters are all not really nice people in the show. And they all kind of use backhanded tactics and whatever they can do to serve what they believe to be a greater purpose. But really kind of comes down to their own selfish reasons. And that's kind of some parallels that I drew.
How does the play use multiple mediums?
“Cutthroat” takes place in this retro futurist world where it's kind of Orwellian. With that, there's been a lot of cool work that we've been doing like live camera feeds on the wall. At some point, there's actually a camera person on stage and they wheel around and live screens project it.
The Film & Television Conservatory have been doing a phenomenal job in helping bring the story to life. It's very multimodal, which serves the script and the experience. What we're trying to do is very unique, interesting, and totally different.
How did you start writing and how is it connected to your role in the acting conservatory?
Initially when I was applying to OCSA, I wanted to be in creative writing. But that starts in 9th grade and I came here in 7th grade. I was like, okay, well, I also have a passion for acting. The first acting thing I ever did was a workshop where you, all these kids came together and you wrote and performed a show. So actually that's where a lot of my passion for both came. It's always very interconnected. But I came into acting and just the sheer amount of love and care that our conservatory puts into every student and all the shows is astonishing. And I really kind of discovered what I wanted to do for the kind of shows that I wanted to do. I didn't want to just write, but I also wanted to see it performed and I realized that's where that's where I was. I've worked with six separate teachers at this point working on the show itself and getting their own feedback. They've all been amazing.
What was the writing process like for you?
My friends are very supportiveーthey're always the first people to read my scripts and they gave me a lot of good advice. They're like, “you should go and submit it.” So I put together a small group of friends and we read it out for the director of our conservatory. And he was like, “this is great. I'd love to work this more in a larger setting.” So over the summer, we had a workshop at Santa Ana College with him and a couple other great student writers. I think that workshop was the pivotal moment where I kind of discovered what the show was. I knew the overarching bits of it, but that was the final cornerstone of discovering what this is what the show was going to be. After that, the ball kind of went rolling. It was picked up for production this season. Over time, I've been able to come into rehearsal and chat with the director and other actors who read the script, and they've been giving me great info and insight about it. I'm proud of myself.
How involved have you been in this production? Have you learned anything throughout that process?
I've learned so much. I've been very privileged to be able to come in while callbacks are going on, and I was able to give some of the people some background information on the characters. Over the course of this production, which was cast back in October, I've been coming in periodically to come and check out the process. It's astonishing. Mr. Moreno, our director, came in with a cool idea for the show that while it was different from maybe my own ideas while writing it, turned out amazingly. He came in with a lot of interesting music, cues, characterization and this whole new aesthetic that I never really thought about, but ended up being really great. As the writer, I cared more about the fact that he had so much passion for it, to create this whole new world. I think it's a phenomenal take on the script. I'm so excited to see it done.
What's next for “Cutthroat”?
If I'm able to see there's a future for the script, then I'll take it. I'm a “yes” man. But also since I wrote “Cutthroat,” I've written a bunch of other scripts. I'm writing kind of a variation translation of Bertolt Brecht, who's one of my favorite playwrights. He wrote a play called “St. Joan of the Stockyards.” I'm always working on something.
What are your goals and interests for writing and acting?
I like acting and writing. Recently, I wrote a 20-minute screenplay. I'm taking a class at USC, a directing class, and a screenwriting classーa kind of a dual class. I'm directing it right now with some friends.
However, I do think my real passion is in playwriting. I love the constraints, but also the nature of it. With “Cutthroat,” I really wanted to push the boundaries of what a traditional play could be and kind of push what makes a play unique from a screenplay. The fact that there's actual people in front of you and you can interact with the actors on stage. I think that's what really draws me to the form.
What's next for you beyond OCSA?
I'm really interested in schools like USC, LMU and Chapman. Those are all my dream schools. I really want to hone myself as a storytellerー that's definitely what I want to go into. I think working on this project and how much inspiration I’ve received I've really realized that I do want to be an artist.
Going forward, for my acting side, I want to audition over the summer and participate in more stuff. For writing, I've been submitting to a bunch of play competitions. I would love to go and get a bachelor's degree and then go into the industry.
Any final thoughts?
I feel very privileged to be in this position. I think this is the first solo student written show acting has done other than New Play Festival. I never would have thought when I was writing this back in 8th grade that I would have had the privilege to have it performed in the Webb Theatre of all things with such a talented cast and crew. And here in OCSA, it's a dream come true. I feel really happy that I was able to have that experience.