Senior Spotlight: Independent Studies, Victoria Shen - Surrealism and the Absurd

Riverdale Review: Please briefly discuss the subject of your independent study. 

Victoria Shen: We’re doing surrealism and theater of the absurd, even though…we kind of switched gears a little bit, so the main project that I’m doing is writing a full length play, which is like 90 plus pages usually, and it’s utilizing themes of surrealism, especially the aftereffects of a war and how that has changed our forms and really driven way to this particular one.

RR: Why did you choose to spend additional time studying this topic? 

VS: Because I like writing, and I did take writing seminar which was a creative writing class, and I thought that was very minimal, at least to me, so I wanted to get in another opportunity where I could use deadlines and really write as much as I can because I have a lot of unfinished novels here, unfinished screenplays there, but they’re all unfinished and that’s because I don’t think that I’ve had strict deadlines that I’ve had to keep to, but this independent study being academic and with a faculty advisor who’s behind my process, he really makes sure that I get the work done.

RR: What has been your biggest challenge so far since you began your study?

VS: My biggest challenge is that I overestimated myself completely. I thought that you could write a 100 page play in a semester, and that has turned out to be extremely difficult, I am way behind. I am about one eighth into my outline, and I have around ten weeks left. Writing is something that I care a lot about, it’s my favorite thing, and so I naturally spend a lot more time doing it, and because I care so much about it, I can’t stand when there’s something wrong, so I’m going to spend hours and hours more than I would on any other subject, and because of that I just inevitably run out of time. So I think… the main priority [now] is not perfecting the writing but making sure that I end up with a complete draft, and not a half written script.

RR: What was the goal of your study?

VS: The goal was to experience studying a particular art period and [learn] how to translate that into a complete work of art.