Pretty, Smart, Poetic

Pretty, Smart, Poetic is a play written by Brigham Mosley (B.F.A.’10) for the 2010 SMU Meadows School of the Arts’ New Visions, New Voices student production.

The only reason I saw Pretty, Smart, Poetic was for extra credit in my theatre class, Mirror of the Ages. Mosley is a Teacher Assistant for my class, so it was interesting to watch his vision and what he had created on stage. I am not interested in the theatre or the arts whatsoever. However, I left Mosley’s production rather satisfied.

In summary: Pretty, Smart, Poetic is the story of three girls: one pretty, one smart, and one poetic, and their unbalanced and unhappy life as a result of their dad’s overprotection and his desire to love and to be loved. He loved his daughters so much he did what he thought would protect them by over exaggerating their talents and lying about their deceased mother. He placed special emphasis on his girls’ extraordinary talents, or really what they had been told to focus on by their father all their lives. This only led to resentment of their father and unintentional pain inflicted on his daughters.

The play generated questions concerning the complexity of human identity and love. According to Brandon Sterrett (B.F.A’10), a critic and scene shop assistant for Pretty, Smart, Poetic, “Having logical thoughts, artistic souls, and physical bodies makes us humans endlessly complex and exasperatingly messy”. The moral of the story is enjoying a balanced life, and living because you want to, not because your parents force you to.

I think we all can relate to the story. Fathers never mean to hurt their daughters, nor does any parent. We have all experienced pressure from our parents in one way or another, and may not have known necessarily how to deal with it. I encourage you all to love what you do and have that balanced life needed to be happy.