Behind the Curtain with the DAN Studio Series Co-Producers
If you’ve spent much time around the DAN School of Drama and Music, you’ve probably heard of the DAN Studio Series (DSS). DSS is a student-run and led theatre collective that stages productions each semester. Typically, these productions are grouped together into one show run and this fall semester, the show is a feature of four short comedies. This year’s co-producers, Connor Houghton and Halli Hood, are at the helm of a team currently balancing midterms, rehearsals, and the magic and chaos of coordinating multiple productions.
Since becoming co-producers in August, they have brought in directors, designers, and actors. They’ve hosted a DJ party fundraiser, and today will be opening night of DSS Daydream, their newest show. When asked how they juggle these responsibilities while being full-time students, Hood says, “It’s a lot of work. It’s a fulltime job but I like it. It takes a lot of time but I want to put the time in to make it as good as it can be.” The pair consistently credit their assistant producer, Amelia Passafiume, and the rest of their stellar team for making it all possible.
I caught up with Houghton and Hood to talk about the process behind this year’s DSS season and what audiences can look forward to when the lights go up.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Could you tell us a bit about the DSS?
CH: DSS is an entirely student-run production. From the directors, the writers, to the production team, pretty much everyone involved in DSS is a student. The process starts off with submissions of pieces. Students will get the chance to submit a 25-ish minute play, musical, pretty much any sort of artistic piece. We get them all anonymously, read them, and choose four to five for a variety show. It’s two acts: two shows at the start, an intermission, then two shows at the end. It is our job as the producers to put them all together. So we hire directors for each of the pieces. We hire designers. We host auditions as well. It’s a complete process in terms of putting on the production from start to finish. It’s ground up creating something all together.
Was this your first time assessing other people’s work?
CH: Yeah, it was. It’s my first time being behind the scenes. I’m an actor, so I’m usually on the other side of the panel. It’s been very interesting to take my knowledge from that and bring it to this other end of hiring and of the production team. There is a very interesting juxtaposition between the two things. But it’s definitely been very fun and I’ve learned a lot from it as well.
HH: I was a vocal director for Queen’s Players in the summer. It’s a wild audition process for that show, so I was still new going into a standard audition room… But it was great.
What can you tell us about these plays?
HH: So we got a lot of comedy submissions and thought, ‘Let’s lean into it.’ We picked four shows that we got a good laugh out of and we think the audience will enjoy.
CH: Yes, the first show A Night at the Fruit Saloon is a lesbian Western but it’s making fun of popular lesbian dating culture, and making fun of older, Western films. The main character, Sally Spring is hunting a bounty named Silverton and she enters a bar and falls in love with this girl named Maggie. But Maggie ends up being the bounty that she’s hunting. So there’s a lot of conflict there.
The Slow Lane is about the trials and tribulations of getting your license in Ontario. We have Patty trying to get her license, and lo and behold, her driving instructor is her ex-boyfriend. They decide that there’s no conflict of interest there, and go along with the test.
In Bubblegum Theatre our main character, Miranda, is a bubblegum enthusiast. Loves popping, loves chewing. She mentions a stat about how four out of five dentists recommend sugar free gum for their gum-chewing patients. And then all of a sudden, we’re introduced to who else but the fifth dentist who disagreed with this. We get a little bit of back and forth between them, the audience gets involved, and there is an entirely improvised ending to the show.
And the last one, Pirates and Prejudice is a spoof on Pride and Prejudice. We get the classic story reimagined through a pirate’s lens and through the lens of older times. They all have really silly accents, and it’s gonna be awesome.
I love those! They all sound so exciting. You have a great lineup. What else are you looking forward to as producers for this year?
HH: I’m excited for other people to see what everyone has been working so hard on. What we have in this show is something really special and different. You know, DSS, over the years, has built a rap of trying to be too dramatic and taking ourselves too seriously. When we took over from the producers last year, they made a point of there being a bunch of comedies and so many people laughing so we thought, ‘Let’s do more comedies. Let’s bring life to the drama department at Queen’s.’ I am excited for people to witness it, and to maybe want to be a part of it. That would be great. And then I’m excited to get to do it all again, even better next year.
CH: I’m excited for people to see it and think, ‘I want to be a part of this next semester.’ My goal is that after the first shows, we have a spike of people wanting to be involved next semester, and I hope that this can continue even into next year, when we pass the role on. We were focused on fostering an environment that is both fun and educational. We tried to get a lot of people involved who were maybe directing for the first time, writing a show for the first time, and being a part of the production team for the first time. And a lot of the times at Queen’s, you have a lot of these intense productions, which there’s obviously a place for, and I love doing that as an actor myself, but I think that there needs to be a space that exists for actors to play, for actors to learn, for people to have these—have a low stake environment to perfect their craft and understand that sometimes it isn’t as serious. Theatre, at the end of the day, is supposed to bring people together and allow people to laugh and enjoy each other’s company. With DSS, we want to make sure that is at the forefront of the environment we’re creating, and I hope that that’s reflected after the shows, both for the audience as well as for everyone involved.
And lastly, how did you decide on DSS DayDream?
CH: Given that we have a bunch of pieces that are set in different times and different areas, we thought that a good connecting word for all of them would be ‘daydream.’ The idea is that when you’re coming in to see it, you’re going to be in the trance. You’re going to leave, and then you’ll be like, ‘Wow, what a daydream!’
‘DSS Daydream’ is playing at the Baby Grand from October 28 till November 1, 2025. Tickets are available here.
