Cora Perkins, Assistant Spectrum Editor
Maeve Bauer, Spectrum Editor
Staged, a new, student-led theatre organization focusing on small-scale, staged readings debuted their first production last weekend with “The Bonespurs.”
Founded in October 2025, Staged is run by a team of eight cast and crew members. “The Bonespurs” ran for a total of 30 minutes with no intermission.
The organization focuses on character development from actors, rather than flashy set design and costumes, according to Novella Edwards, director of “the Bonespurs.”
“There’s blocking, but most of the character buildings like it’s mostly focused on the actor’s voice on selling the character,” Edwards said.
Staged is joining VCU Shafer Alliance Laboratory Theatre (VCU S.A.L.T) and Doomsday Theatre Company as independent, student-led theatre outlets outside of the Mainstage productions.
Those involved with Staged hope to bring a new light to theater, Edwards said.
“I guess that staged is still a really new organization, but we’re just looking to do theater a different way,” Edwards said. “And just for people to be, I don’t know, just get ready to get weird.”
The story of “the Bonespurs” follows a stereotypical 1950s American family living life like all is well, when in actuality they are stranded in the middle of a nuclear wasteland. The father is lost in delusion with the rest of the family following along, except for the main character Violet Bonespur, who begins to poke holes in their reality.
The characters had a 50s silhouette, but the style was more dark and grungy.
The play mirrors the real world, according to Edwards.
“The main girl character, she’s questioning the world around her as we all should,” Edwards said. “We all need to be questioning the political climate, we need to be questioning the people in power.”
L.C. Kane, the playwright behind “the Bonespurs,” shared a similar sentiment.
“[The play] can be applied to so many different things going on right now. ICE, Palestine; even more potent from when I wrote, things seem more bleak now,” Kane said. “It is talking about closing blinds and making believe in your own household and the world outside is a disaster.”
Kane started writing the play after receiving feedback a different play she wrote was “not funny enough.” She took the criticism and created a play that was supposed to feel like a sitcom family on the brink of insanity.
Kane cited the video games “No, I’m Not a Human,” and “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” as inspiration for the setting and themes of the play. She took inspiration from 1960s sitcoms in the characterization, such as “The Brady Bunch” and “I Dream of Gennie.”
The themes of the show are retribution, shared psychosis, family privilege and in some ways, liberation, according to Kane.
Attendee Natalie Fajota, showed out to support the first play by the new group.
“It gives apocalypse,” Fajota said. “It gives other meanings, meanings that you need to dig a little bit for.”