Dering clears up Boyd’s ‘Misconception’

Sophomore theater major Rory Dering isn’t the kind of guy to let things get in his way. He managed to find an on-campus venue to showcase his play, “Misconception,” when the theater department couldn’t produce the show. He managed to find a way to talk to the press despite an unforgiving snowstorm, even if it meant passing a cell phone around to those members of the cast who could brave the weather. And he didn’t let a little thing like being the playwright get in the way of directing the show either.
“Misconception” is a story about two twentysomethings, Simon (Eric Peterson) and Kathleen (Jennifer Yue), who fall in love but are constantly pushed apart. Friends and family form a web of lies and set-ups, blind dates and ulterior motives.
The rest of the plot is being kept secret to peak interest in the play. But Dering and his actors are willing to reveal a little bit of information: “It’s a romantic comedy that stabs you in the back,” says Clinton Ambs, who plays Adam in the show.
Dering says his aim was to create a show with a college theme that Rowan students could relate to. “I tried to make it nonstop fun,” he explains.
“Misconception” took two weeks for Dering to write, but it’s proving to be a much more long-lasting project.
Boyd Hall in Wilson became the show’s venue once Dering found out that Bunce’s Lab Theater wouldn’t be putting up any original pieces this semester. After finding a faculty sponsor, stagecraft professor Tom Fusco, and a group sponsor, Campus Players, “Misconception” was given the green light to work in the music building.
Building a set was out of the question, since Boyd Hall is used for the Faculty Spotlight Series as well as many other on-campus music events. As a result, the set is simple. There are no real permanent set pieces, just things that can be moved around. “It’s like having a group of actors in old times who’d move sets scene by scene, working out of a trailer or something,” Dering says.
All the work for “Misconception” has been done by students, something that’s rare for any type of on-campus theater. “It’s completely done by students from the ground up … the play itself is even from the minds of [Rowan's] peers,” says Peter Comperatore, who plays Little Dick Johnson, one of the characters responsible for pushing Simon and Kathleen apart.
“It’s a wacky show. Everyone brings something different [to it]. That’s what I like about it,” adds cast member Nick Franklin.
For all the hard work the cast has done, they still know how to have fun and joke about it. “I have the lowest GPA out of anyone in the cast,” Dering says with a laugh, “and I’m in charge. That’s pretty silly.”
Clearly though, the right guy’s in charge. At Rowan, Dering performed in Michael Duke and Melanie Stewart’s “The Gathering,” and he has been involved in theater for years. Over the summer, Dering wrote and directed a movie called “The Adventures of Mario and Luigi.” That’s infinitely more than most college kids do with their summers.
The cast is very impressed with the caliber of work that Dering has produced, both as a playwright and a director. “He really did some quality work … some of the lines are hysterical. He’s just got the idea of being a playwright down,” says “Misconception” cast member Eric Peterson. “And Rory’s only a sophomore. He’s got time to do more.”
Ambs says that having Dering as a director was helpful – it offered the perspective of the playwright on the play itself, something that Rowan students don’t normally get to experience. “He can tell us what he meant by certain things,” Ambs says. “There’s an edge having the writer there.”
Dering is also impressed with his actors, even if his style of praise isn’t exactly orthodox. “They’re all insane,” he says over the laughter of his cast on the other end of the phone. “That’s why I cast them.”
Right. Nothing else has stopped him, so why should insanity?