A Zombie Apocalypse Story: Pima Community College’s Theater Arts Department explores human behavior with production of ‘Night of the Living Dead’

Last year, Pima Community College’s theater arts department put on a production of “Dracula” that sold out every performance. This year, they are bringing the cult classic “Night of the Living Dead” to the stage in an interact way. 

This version of the show, which has been adapted and directed by Chris Will, will be presented from Thursday, October 16 to Sunday, October 26, at Pima’s West Campus Center for the Arts.  

On Fridays and Saturdays, the theater department will offer late-night shows with gorier content and more adult language for 18-and-older audiences. 

The show is based off the 1968 film by George A. Romero and John A. Russo.  

Chris Will, head of the theater department at PCC, said when he and his creative team were looking for shows to do, they noticed there were already a number of existing scripts for “Night of the Living Dead.” 

“We looked it up, and funny enough it is in public domain. This is a fun fact we learned. ‘Night of the Living Dead’ became public domain the day that it was released… They changed the title a couple of weeks before release, and they forgot to put the copyright license on the poster and on all the stuff. Arguably, some people say that’s what made it more of a cult classic. People could air it and not have to pay for it. Poor George Romero and John Russo didn’t get as much money as they should have. We found that out, and we were like, ‘Let’s do our own adaptation,’” Will said. 

Since starting to work on the show, Will has seen the film at least 20 times. 

“You watch it for different reasons. What are we going to do with the makeup? I didn’t watch the zombies for makeup. I was watching it for the set. Then, you watch it again. Then, what about the music? I wasn’t thinking about the music. You’re watching it in a singular way to figure out how we want to tell the story,” Will said. 

The theater department puts on four shows a year, including original youth productions written by students and large-scale musicals. 

The production will be an immersive theatrical experience that blends film and live performance. 

Will was inspired to adopt this format after seeing a version of “Macbeth” in Ireland where they also combined onstage performance with film. 

“During that play, they went right to a film. It was almost like the whole set went away…After that show, I ran home. I watched the film, and I figured out how much footage we could use that didn’t have actors in it. There was about 20 minutes worth of footage. That’s enough to tell the story,” Will said. 

The production features clips from the original film along with scenes recorded by film students from Pima’s film and animation department. 

“Their film club has been helping out with some original footage we had to make and helping us edit the old footage that we have from the film,” Will said. 

The newly filmed scenes were done in a similar style as Romero’s. 

Early in the rehearsal process, they started incorporating technology such as lights and projectors. 

Will said that making sure the technology is working in tandem has been one of the biggest challenges. Mika Gordon, a student, has been working as projections designer, along with acting in the show. 

“He really didn’t have any experience before. He had done some projections for a show last year, but he was drawing the projections… We’ve taught him, and now he knows how to use QLab and map a projector to project in different spots on the surface,” Will said. 

The theater department has also collaborated with the fashion design department at Pima, which has helped to design costumes for the show. 

Like the film, the play centers around not just zombies but deeper topics such as survival and human nature in time of crisis. 

Will hopes that audiences leave thinking about the deeper messages within it. 

“We don’t deal with zombies, but the last five to six years, we’ve been dealing with a pandemic of our own…It shows that when you are trying to figure out how to fight zombies or the pandemic, you end up fighting each other over what you should do,” Will said.  

Will said that they stayed close to the original story, with some changes based on their cast. 

The main character of Ben has been changed to a female character named Bev, who is a leader within the group. 

“We took the same approach that they did and cast the best actor as the lead. When they did that with ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ it happened to be an African American male…They weren’t trying to be edgy in casting these characters. It was whoever they could get and then let’s use the best actors that we can. That’s how we always cast at Pima. Sometimes, we change genders because if there’s a better actor, and they happen to be female for a male role. Let’s explore what that looks like. We don’t want gender to limit people’s opportunities at Pima,” Will said. 

The show stars Sophia Teso and Kia Benson as Bev, Tess Lowrie and Charlotte Raines as Barbra, Mika Gordon and Elijah Nixon as Johnny, Grey Hill and Caden Wilfong as Harry, Zora Street and Holly Fanlon as Helen, Matthew Frankenfield and Nico Alvarado as Tom, Ann Herrera and Miah Scofero as Judy and Nathanial Treptow and Ayden Mccauley as only zombies. 

Pre-recorded footage features Art Almquist as a TV anchor, Rebecca Hall as a TV reporter, Derek Staring as a general and Treptow as a professor. 

The show is double cast, which means the actors will play both main roles and zombie characters. 

Will said that playing different roles will help to expand on students’ performance abilities. 

“One night, they’re scaring the person, and another night, they’ve being scared. It helps with perspective. They know what it feels like to be a zombie, but then they also know what it feels like to be scared of a zombie,” Will said. 

Tess Lowrie, a sophomore at Pima who is majoring in elementary education, is one of the actresses playing Barbra. 

She grew up in Tucson and graduated from Sabino High School. 

Lowrie has been doing theater for most of her life. 

For about eight years as a child, she took part in the youth program at Gaslight Theatre. There, she had a chance to do two to three musicals each year. 

She has done some film work over the years, including acting in a psychological thriller at age 16. 

She has performed in several Arts Express Theatre shows. Recently, she was a nun in their production of “Sister Act.”  

Lowrie also works as a party princess, portraying characters such as Ariel, Belle, Captain Marvel and Rapunzel. 

Three years ago, with Pima, Lowrie did a production of “Cabaret,” where she was one of the ‘Kit Kat Girls.’ This is her second time working with the theater department.

Lowrie often does comedies, so a horror show is a different experience for her. 

“I had not been involved in a horror project before, and that has always been something that’s really interested me. I wanted to get outside of my comfort zone and portray a character completely different than anything I had ever done before,” Lowrie said. “It’s been challenging to go from trying to be over-the-top and very comedic to something much more serious,” Lowrie said. 

Lowrie added that she rarely watches horror movies. 

“Even watching ‘Night of the Living Dead’ together with my cast, I was the only one wigging out at some of the scenes. They found the effects to be a little old fashioned, but it was still affecting me,” Lowrie said.  

Although Lowrie wasn’t familiar with the film, her older brother is a longtime fan who loves horror movies. 

“When my castmates and I all watched it together, I totally understood why he adores it so much. I can see why it is so influential and such a classic,” Lowrie said. 

Lowrie’s character Barbra is based on Judith O’Dea’s character from the original film. 

The show explores how different characters, including Barbara, handle trauma and navigate difficult situations. 

“I am in a disassociated state for a lot of the play. I go through a transformative character arc from the beginning to the end. Without trying to spoil too much, my character suffers some significant trauma in the beginning of the show. The rest of the time is essentially just her coping or maybe failing to cope with those events and her feelings towards them… Admittedly, that’s how I would handle those situations as well if I were in her shoes,” Lowrie said. 

Her character doesn’t speak for a large portion of the show.  

Lowrie said for both her and Charlotte Raines, the other actress playing Barbra, physicality has been an important part of their portrayals. 

“You can’t really fake hyperventilating, shaking, being very tense or clenching your jaw…We are very anxious and out of it. After sitting and having strange breathing patterns and shaking for about an hour, after rehearsal, I need to just de-stress, find a routine, listen to happy music and remind myself that there aren’t actually zombies outside coming to get me,” Lowrie said. 

Lowrie said one of the biggest challenges in the show has been interacting with the filmed scenes. 

“We have some actions that we want to line up directly with the video. Sometimes, we’ll be acting something out onstage that correlates to what’s happening in the video. Or it’s even supposed to be same character at the same time. We definitely want to make sure we’re getting the timing and the pacing accurate,” Lowrie said. 

For the show, Lowrie and the other actors have been learning do their own zombie makeup. While special-effects-style style makeup is new to her, she has been doing stage makeup on herself since middle school. 

In one scene in the show, she will apply prosthetics to another cast mate’s face. 

Lowrie has been able to flesh out her zombie character, creating a backstory that she is a farm girl. She said others have individualized their zombie characters as well. 

“They allowed us to have some input on what our costumes could be and what occupation our zombie characters would have… My friend Holly wanted to be a chef. She has the chef hat and everything, with the bloodied-up chef’s coat,” Lowrie said. 

Pima Theater Presents “Night of the Living Dead”
WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 9 p.m. 18 and older shows Fridays and Saturdays. 2 p.m. Sundays. Thursday, Oct. 16-Sunday, Oct. 26. ASL Night Friday, Oct. 24
WHERE: Black Box Theatre, West Campus Center for the Arts,            2202 W. Anklam Road, Tucson
COST: $10-$15, PCC students receive one free ticket
INFO: bit.ly/4on7c85