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Life & Arts

UH senior pushing for success in theater

'The Tragedy of Proto-Hobo' the ‘greatest musical ever written,' Hundemer says

by MOHAMMED OLOKODE
The Daily Cougar 

Theater senior and local playwright Greg Hundemer is pretty confident when it comes to talking about what he wants to do in life. Only after checking out his string of accomplishments will you realize what ignited his wealth of self-assurance.

"I'm not even going to lie, I want to be famous," Hundemer said. "I want to win a Nobel Prize, and I probably will someday."

Hundemer's latest project, The Tragedy of Proto-Hobo, opened Thursday with the last showings at 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow at the University of Houston-Downtown's O'Kane Theater.

Hundemer's Fragility's Decline, a relationship drama based on the people he knew and something personal and biographical to him, and Out, which is about a young man living the gay lifestyle but has trouble telling his mother, have also been presented before audiences.

For Hundemer, the new play is something that he has never done before, despite the fact that he wrote an adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces and the lyrics for The Life of Pi, both of which are musicals.

"Well, it's the first musical that I've written completely, like, completely myself. I've worked on other musicals before," Hundemer said.

The musical is also Hundemer's thesis project, he said.

For the musical, Proto-Hobo, which is "a homeless vagrant of the mechanical type," Hundemer said, the idea came up in June 2005 from short stories he and his cousin wrote. One of the characters from his short stories was in a rock band called The Hairymen and the Hobo. 

Originally, Hundemer said he didn't plan Proto-Hobo as a musical.

"I've been writing about hobos for a while and originally Proto-hobo was going to be an album, like a rock album," he said, "It's kind of a hobby that I have. I sing and play guitar in a band called The Natural Logs. So that was originally going to be an album and then I just decided, ‘Hey, this should be a musical.'"

The story is about a mad scientist who creates an android hobo and he is sent to live among the humans. His goal is to collect the world's change so that the scientist can finance her takeover of the world. During this time, Proto-Hobo meets three hobos, Vern, Larus and Mack, the last of which is a female hobo. Proto-Hobo is soon torn between obeying his master's order and knowing how to love.

Hundemer not only wrote the text and produce it, but also the music and lyrics.

"My goal with the songs is to make them all hummable," Hundemer said. "So if you walk out of the theater humming one of the songs, that's my goal. I don't think people will be uncomfortable."

There are many mentors that he has such as theater professors Kevin Rigdon and John Harvey, and friends Philip Hays and Bernando Cubria. Hundemer said he chose Cubria to direct the play and describes him as a person who taught and inspired him every step of the way.

"If there's another genius in the theater department right now, it's Bernando," Hundemer said.

Hundemer has been involved in theater since he was in sixth grade with a production of The Trial of the Three Bears, a take on the classic tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears. By high school, he knew he wanted to be more involved in theater.

While in high school, Hundemer said he learned that people who have the fewest inhibitions are popular and funny, meaning if you don't care what people think of you, they will like you more. He uses this idea in his musical to make his point.

"I've applied this to Proto-Hobo in the sense that I wrote this ridiculous musical, of which the whole point is to have fun, and not worrying about what people think of the ridiculous plot and the crazy sometimes nonsensical jokes," Hundemer said.

For the audience going to see the show, Hundemer said he wants them to know that he is not trying to push a political agenda or something similar. The only thing he wants is for the audience to have fun and be excited, he said.

"I don't need you to think, I don't need you to think along with it. I mean, I'll like you to be active and involved, but I don't need you to form opinions," Hundemer said. "I don't need you to listen to an agenda that I'm trying to push because I'm not. I'm not trying to say anything other than, ‘Hey man, you know. Lighten up.'"

"If the audience doesn't have fun then I've failed, and I promise you that I did not fail."

After watching the play, Hundemer said he knows that he is thankful and proud of all the people who help him make this musical possible.

"I saw a run-through of the play, and I am most proud of my director, my actors, my designers and technical staff for devoting so much of their lives to make the thesis happen," Hundemer said. "It gives me confidence that I can inspire all of these talented people into putting together the greatest musical ever written -- or performed."

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