Juan Villa / The Collegian
The spirit of the sixth annual Rogue Performance Festival 2007 is alive at Fresno State.
The writing students in the Master of Fine Arts program at Fresno State are participants in the Rogue Festival, which continues Thursday through March 10 in the Tower District.
Fresno State graduate student assistant and MFA student, Anthony Bonds is adding his own flavor to the Rogue Festival by writing, producing and directing his first play called, “Sould.� It will be Bonds’ first time performing at the Rogue Festival.
A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Bonds began attending Fresno State last semester. Bonds originally wrote the play his friends in college but never thought it would be reproduced.
“The main character, Brown, is a poet who sold his soul by accident on the Internet,� Bonds said. “He loses all of his poetry when he clicked on the wrong Web site.�
The 12-page play is short but, “It focuses on the importance of friendship,� Bonds said. “In a time of isolation by the Internet, reinforces us the need for human contact.�
Marc Gonzalez, a freshman at Fresno State, is one of the main actors in “Sould.�
“It’s been challenging to convey all the emotions and feelings my character goes through in such a short time,� Gonzalez said. “His play is not only very creative and definitely unique, but simple enough for the modern day audience to get the full effect of the what the play is trying to say about society, along with using some comedic irony.�
Playwriting is a new component to Bonds’ colorful writing portfolio. His work mainly consists of creative writing pieces. Bonds’ production of “Sould� is a step into a new direction since many of his professors and peers at Fresno State know him mainly as a creative writer.
“Tony is bright, ambitious, and hard working,� said Steven Church, an assistant professor at Fresno State. “He can do anything he decides that he wants to do. I wouldn’t be surprised to see his name on a book jacket or rolling past your eyes in the credits for a film.�
Bonds̢۪ writing has already made an impact in the short time he has been in Fresno.
“I know him as a fiction writer, not a playwright,� said Steve Yarbrough, the James and Coke Hallowell Professor of Creative Writing at Fresno State,. “But I think very highly of his fiction. He’s a bright and awfully talented young man.�
Bonds’ also teaches two sections of English composition at Fresno State. Definitely not a stranger to hard work, “I want to have written a book of short stories and also a novel by the time I graduate the MFA program,� Bonds said. “Nobody successful ever lacked ambition.�
Bonds has already made his presence felt on campus and will do the same with “Sould� at the Rogue Festival. The play can be seen March 10, at 2:30 p.m at The Spectrum Gallery at 1306 N. Wishon in Fresno.