oskar cy westbridge

knights of the group project, by zach peercy​

Knights of the Group Project was my first experience working with theatre for young audiences. The play is about a three sixth graders, DND Nerd, Heavy Metal Freak, and Sports Dude Bro, alongside the historical King Arthur, who is badly disguised as a sixth grader, giving a presentation on Arthurian legend. Each myth, ranging from the story of Gareth the Kitchen Knight to Lancelot's quest for the Holy Grail, is narrated by a different student and grounded in their unique interests (in the DND Nerd's stories an audience member rolls a D20 to progress the story, the Heavy Metal Freak sings their stories, etc.). 

​

At the beginning of the show, the audience meets the "Questing Beast" (Heavy Metal Freak in disguise) who has stolen the pages of the report. After completing a task, the audience is able to retrieve five of the nine total pages, meaning that each show has a random assortment of scenes, which we staged to be perrformed in any order. 

​

In terms of design, we leaned into the aesthetic of objects that middle school students could ostensibly find in their classroom or homes (ie. the "holy grail" was a mug that said, "my teacher is a rockstar"). Furthemore, since the play is performed on tour, in a variety of spaces, I wanted each prop to be used for a number of tasks. For instance, the yardsticks stood in for swords, walking sticks, skewers of meat, and horses to be ridden.