At the end of May, a group of Highlands
High School students premiered the play Escape Routes at the
Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Fort Thomas Matters first covered the show's trip to the festival by speaking with writer and co-director
Ben Eglian and co-director Kaiya Linkugel in the days leading up to
the premiere. During the festival, Escape Routes quickly won
over audiences in the Cincinnati area, and was presented an award for
their theatrical achievements. Fort Thomas Matters recently caught up
with Eglian again to discuss the impact that Escape Route's experience at
Fringe Fest has left on him.
Eglian's
show was part of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival's high school
division, FringeNext, which features four shows that were carefully
chosen to perform at the festival. FringeNext was created to help
showcase new talent and encourage teenagers to push the limits of
their creative abilities. Escape Routes left a mark on
audiences, and the production walked away with the FringeNext
Audience Pick award for their performances at the festival. “The
day I got this award was probably the best day of my life. It was the
most insane thing because I had to go up and give a speech the night
that I won and stuff. It was just incredible, absolutely incredible.
There weren't really any words,” said Eglian.
When Eglian started writing Escape
Routes, he didn't know it would eventually make it to a stage,
therefore the thought of it ever winning an award far exceeded his
initial expectations. “The whole idea of Escape Routes started
out as just an idea,” said Eglian. “I didn't know what it
would go into, and I didn't even know I would submit it into
FringeNext. I thought that it was a cool idea, but I had never
written a show before.” Luckily for local audiences, Eglian
didn't let his lack of experience stop him from spending endless
hours perfecting the play. “The fact that not only did it get
accepted (for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival), but it was chosen by
all these audiences of Greater Cincinnati is the best. That people
understood it so well, and liked the concept so much to have that
award is insane,” said Eglian.
Eglian also served as co-director for
Escape Routes, and seeing his words come to life onstage was a
very fulfilling experience for him. That doesn't mean that he didn't
have to endure all the initial nervousness that accompanies the debut
of a new show. “The first night you're just kind of praying that
people pick this up, and laugh at the funny parts, and cry at the
dramatic parts. When we first got the audiences in and they were
laughing and they were getting upset at the sad parts, it was just
absolutely crazy,” said Eglian.
Seeing audiences experience the show
for the first time, and truly absorb the message he was putting out
into the world with Escape Routes was an important moment for
Eglian. “It's mind boggling still for me to think that
was something I was writing on my laptop really late at night, and
now 100 people are seeing this at a professional venue, and
processing this, and I'm controlling their emotions based on what I
came up with that night. It's insane. Greatest feeling ever,
definitely,” said Eglian.
Escape Routes also served as a
lesson in how to handle constructive criticism. Like everything in
life, it's hard to win over everyone. The show received many good
reviews, but there was a common negative review that stated that the
show was too ambitious and that it perhaps was trying to tackle too
many themes at once. Eglian wasn't discourage by this criticism, and
instead was able to find the silver lining amongst the negative
reviews. “They said, though, that the fact that the show is
really ambitious is actually a good thing because that's what
FringeNext is all about – trying new things, experimenting, and
opening up new doors to our minds. It was a very broad show, and
people both liked that and disliked that. Personally, I liked the
fact that the show was very ambitious. I thought that it needed to be
that way, that it needed to cover all the things I experienced in
high school. I felt like if I were to leave any of it out, it would
have just been ignorant of me. I felt like everything in the show had
a good purpose to it,” said Eglian. He firmly believes that
the themes discussed in the play all needed to be talked about, and
Escape Routes created a platform for teens to honestly and
truthfully express themselves and their life experiences.
Not only did Escape Routes win
over the festival's audiences, but is also reminded festval
organizers not to underestimate the talent of teenagers. “When
we won the award, they were telling us (Fringe Festival organizers)
that when they first read Escape Routes that
they were really unsure of it because of how ambitious it was. They
thought there was no way high schoolers can pull this off and do this
show, but they said that they were proved so wrong in that
assumption. That was very moving to hear that. Very inspiring,
definitely,” said Eglian.
Now that the Fringe Festival is behind
him, Eglian is ready to focus on his next creative endeavor –
college. Eglian will be studying music at Northern Kentucky
University starting this fall. His band, Break & Run, is also
recording their first EP this summer. While Eglian doesn't have any
writing projects in the works right now, it's safe to say Escape
Routes won't be the last time we hear from him.
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