HAZING U : Silly bonding fun or horrifically brutal treatment of others?
(Logo by Steven Cutts, Director of ‘Hazing U’)
When I attended my first year of undergraduate studies in the late 70s in London, Ontario, there was a final Frosh week event called ‘kangaroo court’ where all first-year students ‘had’ to attend to be welcomed into the culture of the college Iife for four years. Some chose not to do so, but I did just out of curiosity to see what this all entailed.
In hindsight, I now consider that evening of ‘kangaroo court’ akin to what might today be called hazing.
I didn’t like it and now wished I hadn’t attended that event well over forty-years ago.
Fellow Canadian and actor Zachary Harris Martin got in touch with me to let me know that a play he had written - ‘Hazing U: A Modern Greek Tragedy’ - was to premiere in late 2019/early 2020 as part of New York Theatre. Noah Golden had spoken to Zack about the reason why he had been inspired to write a play about these rituals on college and university campuses across Canada and the United States. You can find the link to that article here: https://bit.ly/3JybTax
Martin sent me a reel of footage showcasing moments of the show from the Festival’s production that gave me a sense of the one act play and additionally allowed me to gauge an audial audience reaction.
‘Hazing U’s plot takes place inside a fraternity house of an unnamed Michigan university. As the pledging process comes to an end and the first night of Hell Week begins, the malevolent underbelly of the events of one night will forever change the lives of all those involved.
Let’s just say there were a couple of times I was horrified and fascinated by what was transpiring on the stage from the footage I saw. There was another moment where I had to put the action on pause and walk away because it bothered me because I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how people could treat others like this for all in the name of a pledging process to belong to a club, a team, a fraternity, even the military.
Martin told me journalist Anderson Cooper has spoken about these awful hazing rituals and has exposed it recently as a nationwide epidemic.
(Photographer: Michael Santos Sandoval)
I was curious to see where playwright Martin wanted to take ‘Hazing U’ next. Recently I held a Zoom conversation with him along with two others involved in the staging at the festival: Executive Producer Don Mike Mendoza (who called himself the ‘primary producer’ during our conversation) of LA TI DO Productions, now a branch of DMH Mendoza Productions, and Director Steven Cutts who are hoping to take ‘Hazing U’ to that next level of audience awareness to ensure these rituals stop.
The first question that came to my mind was wondering if there was any re-writing (radical or not) regarding ‘Hazing U’. Martin responded not so much. The only thing he has re-written is some of the dialogue here and there to make it current with reference to the Corona virus we’ve all had to live through the last two years. He also added a few items to ‘raise the stakes’. Zack is a big fan of playwright Annie Baker so the dialogue in the play has always been very natural and ‘normal conversation’ sounding from the first draft.
Obviously, Zack doesn’t want any plot spoilers here, but said there was a lot of shock from audience members and from actors because it was so realistic. There were four table reads of the play by the actors first before there was a staged reading in front of an audience, and Zack was told not to hold anything back but to go farther in telling this extremely raw and disturbing story.
(Photo courtesy of Michael Santos Sandoval)
Cutts also mentioned how important it is to showcase this ‘in your face, guttural production’ because a story of hazing has never been performed live on stage before, so it is fresh from that perspective especially in this era of me too.
Don Mike Mendoza would love to see ‘Hazing U’ performed in an off-Broadway theatre sometime soon, perhaps even off-off Broadway because the themes are universal. Mendoza even commented on how hazing rituals can sometimes creep into the world of the theatre. For example, he quoted one event where a new cast member may be ‘welcomed’ and inducted into a summer stock cast by having to do ‘certain’ things which might be deemed as cruel.
Mendoza agreed that this production, along in working with Director Cutts and playwright Martin, is tackling a hugely rampant cultural issue. For Mendoza, the long-term goal is for producing this show live first, and to continue to produce it, not merely as a PSA that might sound rather humdrum and boring, but as a PSA kind of show that can be produced in multiple places all over the country, maybe the world he hopes.
To produce this show worldwide is an opportunity for audiences worldwide to learn about the terrible consequences of creating impossible standards in order to feel welcomed within a group. If the message of ‘Hazing U’ of being cautious can be shared either through Broadway, off Broadway OR off off Broadway, then all the better.
Grandiose ideas indeed, however, if live theatre is to continue to reach young audiences to come to the theatre by producing plays that appeal to them, then perhaps ‘Hazing U’ is one such opportunity.
Personally, I think ‘Hazing U’ might be a one act play that should be staged in all college/university campuses in North America to allow young people to see, to hear and to be cautious of such events of any kind, not necessarily in a school setting.
My conversation with Cutts, Martin, and Mendoza veered off into other directions where I learned a bit more about each of them. Unfortunately, space does not allow me to include that information; however, there was an acronym I learned during our talk that will stay with me.
EGOT.
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
My message to them: “Keep thinking big, guys. We need young people like yourselves who are willing to commit yourselves to a project of this important magnitude.”
Since Zack is Canadian, I even asked him if this project might have a Canadian premiere soon.
His response: “You never know”.
To learn more about ‘Hazing U: A Modern Greek Tragedy’, please visit:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hazinguplay/
Instagram: @hazinguplay