For those of you who are a bit confused about what exactly “Wumbo Nights” is, don’t worry, you’re not alone. In fact, Wumbo Nights is a play being performed by the MSMS dramatic performance class in Shackleford Auditorium on Wednesday, March 8, at 5:30 p.m. In theory however, Wumbo Nights is much more than that.

The play was written by MSMS junior Keegan Lindsey and senior Noah Hunt, who describe it as “a stage adaptation for an episode of a TV show that does not exist.”

“I came up with the idea when I was a sophomore for a video production class I was in. We had to come up with an episode of a sitcom, and somehow we arrived at the idea of ‘Wumbo Nights.’ The name was taken from another project I had made for the same class,” Hunt explained.

The task of writing a play for the class to perform can be daunting, but Hunt stated, “For the most part, it went pretty well. Even though Keegan and I had never worked together on anything before, we had a good chemistry that made writing the play a Ghoulin time.”

About the actual writing process, Hunt also added, “Typically, we would plot out the course for a scene, and then we would figure out what we needed to say to get our points across and who should say it. For a lot of jokes, we would spitball back and forth until we came up with the one that made us laugh the most. As for the more dramatic stuff, it would typically be me writing a lot of that and then Keegan offering feedback and critiques or adding lines that he thought needed to be added.”

Since the play was approved, the class has been preparing for its performance with weekly rehearsals, which, as noted by Lindsey, involved “minimal human sacrifices.” Lindsey also said that when the class received the script, it took some time to warm up.

“At first they were incredibly disturbed and befuddled, but as time went on they accepted their fates, learning and growing not only as human beings, but also as living embodiments of what’s wrong with not only our generation, but also the world at large.”

Hunt added, “It’s not often you can get a group of people excited to do a comedy about modern art and human dogs, so the class’ collective acceptance of the play was very nice.”

The “mighty directorial whip” of Hunt has perfected the play’s performance, and the hours spent on sets has ensured that it is ready for execution.

For those of you still confused, I am too. For those of you questioning whether or not you should attend the performance, I give you the parting words of writers Keegan Lindsey and Noah Hunt, respectively.

“If we’re being completely honest here, you have absolutely nothing better to be doing with your time. If you just said, ‘But Keegan, I still need to write my research paper!’ then you need to reconsider your life choices.”

“Pope Francis saw our play and said ‘It’s Ghoulin!’ If you need more convincing than that, then you are literally a rock. In all seriousness, I think it’s important for students to support art created by their fellow students, and almost every aspect of this play was crafted by an MSMS student. I think it should be used as future advertising for the school. If you showed this to state legislators, they would immediately give us more money, and that’s a cold hard fact,” Hunt asserted.