My name is Emmett Spaw. Fun fact: I’m the guy in the photo. Yes, the one staring blankly into the camera all professional-like.
Here’s a second fun fact: I’m an English major.
Fun fact number three: I made the second fun fact up. That’s right, I just behaved in an intentionally facetious manner. It’s called lying acting, a process I am familiar with because I’m actually a theatre major (and English minor). We hide among you, infiltrating your campus, your livelihood, and your department blogs.
Allow me to psychoanalyze you real quick: You’re probably thinking “Emmett, the structuring of your writing is abhorrent.” To that, I say, in the words of Nickelback, “Yeah.” You may be asking “Has this guy ever written a blog post before?” Well, in the words of Nickelback, “No.” That is because I am a scriptwriter by nature. In fact, that’s how I got my start in theatre: A few years back, I discovered that there is no greater joy than writing down some goofy-ass lines and making your buddies say them out loud. Suddenly, I was casting my friend as Ulysses S. Grant. Offing someone with a guitar onstage. Making someone wear a fascinator. That’s the magic of playwriting, baby. And as I’ve spent time within the Theatre and English programs, I’ve found that my writing has gone from incoherent ludicrousness to partially coherent ludicrousness. Now I’m writing plays about people drinking hand sanitizer, enduring psychosis-induced hallucinations, and drinking salt. Real nuanced stuff. As a result of getting my brains learned up real good, I’ve even been fortunate enough to have my work produced in Iowa, Kentucky, Arizona, and Kansas (a group of states I am now designating “The Spaw Belt”).
And, as of late, I’ve been dabbling in screenwriting: When me and my friends caught wind of the K-State 48-hour film challenge this semester, we thought to ourselves “Why the heck not?”
So, with some grit (and caffeine), our motley rabble of filmmakers produced Dirtbags, scoring three awards and enough money to buy 200 Costco rotisserie chickens. Holy mackerel. But aside from all that cheddar cheese, I walked away from the event having experienced something familiar: I got to dress up my friend in lederhosen. I killed someone onscreen with a yearbook. I made an effigy of myself. Within this process, I had rediscovered the same joy that spurred me to start playwriting. Ain’t that neat?
So to you, dear reader, I say this: Go find that joy. You may not know where to look for it, but it ought to be around here somewhere. And if you see me on campus, be sure to yell “Hey, you’re the guy from the hit film Dirtbags!”
Finally, I shall pose a question to myself: How does one conclude a blog post? I’m just going to say “Over and out.”
Over and out!
— Emmett Spaw (BA ’26, Theatre, English, and Film Studies)
K-State English 