Abstract

Up and Away, Animation, Theater, and the Opioid Crisis

In this project I set out to create a hand drawn animation for the Carthage College production of Up and Away written by Eric Simonson and directed by Herschel Krueger. The animation would be played pre-show and introduce the character of Trey before we even know his name and sort of set the darkly comedic tone for the rest of the play. The challenge in creating it was to take the little information there was about this animation in the script and turn that into something that feels organic and part of the world of the play. It was supposed to seem like it was made by the character Trey so there were things I could and could not do in this animation. There is a uniqueness in this project in the medium itself, a combination of traditional and stop motion animation, all presented in a play where videos are integral to the story and important to the characters. In a little less than two months I made 12 minutes of amateur animation with dozens of cut outs and hundreds of pencil and pen drawings all photographed and edited together to form the final product. I feel that this animation added a lot to the theater going experience and the overall completeness of the play. It played before the show every night and it was wonderful to see people react to it and then look back at it after the curtains close to see just how connected it was to the story that just unfolded for them.