The Objectives:
The goal of this production was to provide an event bringing together the campus community existing around the Roleplaying Guild, as well as increasing visibility for tabletop roleplaying games in the broader Miami community. Taking inspiration from actual play performance, my team and I set out to bring one of these experiences to the stage at Miami to celebrate and potentially introduce people to the hobby whilst also providing a platform to showcase the world that the Roleplaying Guild plays in each week for potential new members. Artistically, this production was meant to be highly accessible to people with any level of experience with ttrpgs or actual plays, and as such took on the tone of a long form improv comedy show flavored with the quintessential DnD fantasy elements.
The Oxford Adventurer’s Guild was a co-production between the New Wave Theatre Company and Roleplaying Guild of Miami University, with the goal of creating an original actual play performance in the style of the live shows of groups like Critical Role and Dimension 20, featuring student performers with backgrounds in the worlds of both games and theatre. The show was set in Arrow Point, the homebrew campaign setting utilized by the Miami Roleplaying Guild in their ongoing West Marches-style Dungeons and Dragons campaign with characters created by the performers as well as a cast of non-player characters created by myself. This combination of long-form improv and Dungeons and Dragons ran April 11th-12th at Miami University. You can read the full program here.
The Processes:
Given how rooted this production was in the characters comprising the adventuring party, the whole process began with casting. Through the audition process I sought out a group of actors with a collective balance between the worlds of theatre and improv as well as tabletop gaming, constructing a group who would be entertaining to watch play as well as perform. From here, I developed a unique rehearsal process that essentially took the form a Dungeons and Dragons campaign to give the actors space to develop their characters as well as the relationships between them, with a “character making party” taking the place where traditional table work might go. Once we found the characters in play, we brought in our movement coach Lee Trout as well as costume designer Mary Johnston-Medina to help bring the characters from table to stage. A huge part of this process was the choice to communicate combat sequences through devised and improvised movement for each character, the patterns of which were created and guided by Trout. On stage, we utilized a slide deck of backdrops to provide a quick and simple communication of location complimented with soundscapes designed by Aiden Rassmusen, providing an extra edge of immersion to complement the performances on stage. All of this game together for the two sessions that comprised the performances, interconnected one-shots unfolding over two acts each bringing the audience along for an epic and hilarious adventure.