Interview: Fiona Campbell of DUEL! at the Orlando Fringe Festival

DUEL! centers around the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and how two storytellers end up getting the story very, very wrong. I talked with director/producer Fiona Campbell about the inspiration for the show's creation, the stylized hair and makeup, if storytellers change history, and more!

BWW: What inspired the creation of this show?

Fiona: The first iteration of DUEL! was a 25 minute play written by my two good friends Jake Shepherd and Michael Smith when they were a junior and senior in high school (this was back in 2013, BEFORE Hamilton went public). They submitted it to the District V Thespian festival, won best in show for playwriting, and got high marks at the Florida State Thespian Festival as well. After encouragement from their mentors and some editing suggestions from myself, Jake and Michael wrote a second half for the show, making it a full 60 minute play. THAT was the show we submitted to the Orlando Fringe lottery, and we were lucky enough to get picked the first year we submitted.

In terms of inspiration, Jake and Michael both took a History of the Americas class in their junior year of high school and in that class (taught by the esteemed Ms. Kris Rengel) they read a book titled Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis. One of the chapters of the book covers the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in extensive detail. Jake and Michael were fascinated by the heated debate surrounding this historical event in which Burr fatally shoots Hamilton. It seemed to them, depending on who was telling the story (supporters of Hamilton vs. supporters or Burr) the person at fault changed. Therefore, the reputations of Hamilton and Burr were shaped entirely by who was telling their story. Thus was born the concept for the Narrative Union and ultimately, DUEL!

BWW: The costumes and makeup are very stylized. Tell me about this.

Fiona: This was my first time participating at Fringe in ANY capacity, and I knew I would need help making this show happen since I was taking on the roles of both Director and Producer. Luckily I was able to gather a team of talented designers to help me in this endeavor, two of which collaborated to create the costume and makeup designs.

Sara Bartlett, our costume designer, managed to balance creating all our costumes while in the midst of finishing her senior year of high school at Winter Park High. Amanda Grace, our makeup designer, just finished her sophomore year at Rollins College and had a distinct vision for her makeup designs from the beginning.

We three agreed from the start of our design meetings back in January that we wanted this show to have a cartoon or comic-book aesthetic to match its style and humor. We wanted the shape of the costumes and the use of the makeup to match the show's time period (early 1800s) but the colors we used would be vibrant and saturated to point of being anachronistic. The goal being, to convey that this show is not a conventional period piece. The characters' behavior and speech is extremely contemporary, but the events they are participating in are part of history. We thought the highly stylized costumes and makeup would help bridge this gap for the audience.

BWW: If you were a storyteller like the characters in the show, what other famous story would you want to tell?

Fiona: If I was a storyteller for the Narrative Union I would DEFINITELY want to tell the stories of all the badass women in history that pretended to be men in order to work jobs and positions that they would have otherwise been barred from. (i.e. Margaret Ann Bulkley, who took on the name Dr. James Barry for 50 years to be a physician; Deborah Sampson, who dressed as man during the American Revolutionary War in order to join the military).

BWW: Would you change it? If so, in what way?

Fiona: I think if I were to rewrite those stories in any way, it would only be to highlight all that those women were able accomplish in their lives. The victories of women are often overlooked in history because no one was paying attention or happened to write what they did down (or because they had to hide what they accomplished).

BWW: In real life do you think storytellers end up changing history?

Fiona: Absolutely. The things we "know" about our history are unavoidably biased. Who started wars for what reasons, who were the winners and losers, who was at fault and who was victimized are all influenced by who happens to be writing the story down. Storytelling is a subjective art and requires a certain kind of responsibility on the part of the tellers. Even if historians and storytellers cannot actually go back in time and "change" history the way Nat and Will do, they DO have the power to shape the public's perception of history, and that, I think, is just as impactful.

BWW: What do you hope the audience takes away from this show?

Fiona: I hope people have as much fun watching the show as the cast does performing it, and if they learn a little something about history along the way, even better.

DUEL! will be playing at the White Venue on May 23 at 5:45pm, May 25 at 7pm, May 27 at 11:30pm and May 28 at 4pm. For more information about the Orlando Fringe Festival, visit orlandofringe.org.

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