By: Jarvis McGrath
The students of the Fundamentals of Directing class at Gettysburg College had their final project on Wednesday. The performances took place at Kline Theater on the Gettysburg College campus. The performances included all students from the class directing a scene they had picked with a full cast.
The scenes were almost all adaptions from other plays. All except for one scene from an original play written by one of the students.
A Student Written Original
Najee Blackman is the student who directed his own original scene. He is a junior at the College and a Cinema and Media Studies major.
Blackman has been working on the screenplay for another class he was taking. He has written an entire 100 page script for it. The Gettysburg Connection interviewed the student, and he said he was very happy for the opportunity to showcase it to others.
“It was an amazing opportunity,” said Blackman. “I was very privileged to be able to show my talents and my passion to those who wanted to see it.
Blackman’s screenplay is named It Wasn’t Me? It is about a young afro-latino man who has been released from jail after being wrongfully convicted of murder and now has to adjust to his life after jail and his hopes to pursue an education.
An Inspired Story
According to Blackman, this was a story that was based on his home. “Well, I’m a black and hispanic kid who grew up in New York City,” Blackman said. “So, it’s partially telling that story but there have been so many people that I’ve come across in life with similar stories, and I wanted to make them feel heard in a way that would grab people’s attention.”
The directing class had been working on these final performances for most of the semester. At least to Blackman, and others in the class, it was a great feeling finally seeing their work in action. “It’s a nice feeling to be able to see it in front of you,” Blackman said. “Of course I was very nervous leading up to it, but once I saw how much everyone enjoyed it, I was just happy they were entertained by the story.”
Future Plans?
As for the future, Blackman said that he made this screenplay for a reason, to make it into a full fledged movie. “Obviously this is just the start,” Blackman said. “I do want to make it my goal to turn this into something more. I am already proud of it, but there is much more to come for this screenplay.”
The junior plans on using this screenplay to better his film career in his pursuit of going to film school. “I could very easily see this piece as something that I use for a capstone,” Blackman said. “I have been working on this idea for a long time so there’s no doubt that this piece will hold a special place in my heart.
I am a junior at Gettysburg College. I was born in London, England, and now live in New York. I've always had a passion for journalism and my grandad was a journalist in New York City -- I want to do the same thing with sports journalism and analytics.