A&E

In light of the upcoming presidential election, Communication senior Zach Barr will premiere a 10-minute monologue play about Vice President Joe Biden. “My Name is Joe Biden and I Love Ice Cream,” based on a real speech Biden gave in May in which he spoke these words, will star Communication senior Becca Ehlers and will be presented in various locations across campus Nov. 9 to Nov. 12.

The Daily: What inspired you to write this play and present it to a college audience?

Zach Barr: I saw the speech back in May, and I thought of the way it was being mocked … I was inspired to write the play based on that speech and (asked) myself, “What must Joe Biden actually be thinking, having to give a speech like this?” … The emphasis to bring it to a college campus is to acknowledge that the play is incredibly pertinent to this election cycle. If this play got performed several years from now, it wouldn’t be as powerful.

The Daily: Why will you be presenting the play in various locations across campus?

Barr: I put (the play) up independently very easily so that we could travel it to different locations. Instead of getting non-theater people to see it by advertising very heavily to them, we just get it right to them. It’s 10 minutes long, so we can catch people who are just walking by. This fits the spirit of the election, and (how) it’s there and it’s difficult to ignore or choose that you’re not going to participate in it.

The Daily: Why did you decide to premiere this play the day following the presidential election?

Barr: Becca (Ehlers) and I are actually planning our final runthrough of the show to be on Tuesday night immediately following the election results coming out, because we’ll need to recalibrate the show to serve whatever the outcome is, regardless of who wins. We have to recalibrate not just who wins but also how the loser responds, how the parties respond, what the atmosphere is going to be for those next four days. So the show has kind of shifted from being this patch of niceness immediately following the terrible election to sort of this thing that we can grab onto as the election falls out for four days, which I now believe it definitely will. It’s going to be interesting to see how it actually develops immediately following that decision.

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