TMCC Theatre is highlighting student initiative with its production of The Aliens, a play that is entirely managed by students. From acting and music to props, promotion, and production decisions, students are responsible for all aspects of the show.
The project was not originally part of the season. Theatre instructor Shea King, who directed the production, explained that it started due to student interest. “Our Curtain Call Theatre student club came to us wanting to do an additional project,” King said. “So we put together some parameters, very similar to what I was given in graduate school—there’s a script, no budget, and the students have to behave like producers.”
With no dedicated designers or budget, students Parker Tobin, Kyle Birmingham, and Thomas Cruz handled tasks such as sourcing props, creating a basic set layout, crafting marketing language, making a pre-show playlist, and learning instruments for the performance. King noted: “Other than a little bit of sound and lighting support, it’s really a student-driven thing. They have to do everything.”
The cast includes Tobin, Birmingham, and Cruz. The play focuses on three young men dealing with friendship and isolation as they try to find their place in the world. King described the work as both humorous and relevant: “There are some real talks of addiction and loneliness, but it’s also funny,” King said. “There’s music throughout—the characters used to be in a band, so they play these kind-of awful songs they wrote in high school. It’s messy and human in a really honest way.”
King emphasized that the production serves as an advanced acting challenge because The Aliens uses naturalism—a style marked by pauses and silences rather than traditional realism. “The conversation style has audible pauses, awkward silences, and those moments where you’re trying to figure out what to say,” King said. “It’s different from what we’ve presented before, and they’ve been doing a really great job with it.”
Students had just over three weeks—including winter break—to rehearse and stage the show under conditions similar to professional theatre timelines. King stated: “I told them they had to do it in a semi-professional way. That’s part of learning what it actually means to be a working actor.”
Beyond performing on stage, students learned about self-producing—a skill King considers important early in theatre careers: “If you know how to put a play together, that’s huge,” King said. “That’s how you build a resume and get experience. Jared (Sorenson), theatre professor and I did this in undergrad and grad school, and we wanted to offer that same opportunity to them.”
King hopes this project will encourage more student-produced work at TMCC: “They’ve really been put to the test, and they’ve done a great job,” King said. “I’m excited for people to see it—and hopefully we can offer something like this again next year.”
The Aliens is written by Annie Baker and centers on two young men behind a Vermont coffee shop who form an unlikely bond with a high school student named Evan while discussing music and poetry.
Performances are scheduled for Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m., and Jan. 31 at 2 p.m., all taking place in the Red Mountain Building Performance Lab RDMT 240.
Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) provides educational programs designed for community needs including academic courses and career training across multiple sites in Reno https://www.tmcc.edu/. TMCC serves nearly 20,000 students annually through credit and non-credit programs https://www.tmcc.edu/.
For more information about tickets or future productions contact TMCC’s Visual & Performing Arts department.
