Thirty years after the cult-classic film “The Breakfast Club” premiered, the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess and the criminal will take the stage as QuantUM Entertainment hosts a play adaptation Thursday at the Cosford Cinema with performances throughout the week.
Sophomore Tyler Felts is the chair of QuantUM Entertainment, as well as the executive producer and director of this stage production. In order to create the production, he adapted the screenplay from the movie to make it into a play script. He has previously worked on the show in his hometown of Cincinnati. After its success, he proposed the show to the QuantUM executive board.
“We discussed it and we worked out a little more of the specifics, and we realized that this is actually something that we can really do this semester, and do well,” he said.
The play comes during a momentous occasion for the 80s film. This week, it celebrated its 30th anniversary. Felts believes the movie has been prolific throughout the years.
“‘The Breakfast Club’ has become this timeless thing,” he said. “The whole point of the show and of the movie is that, at the end of the day, you’re breaking down these stereotypes and working together and finding out that I can relate to each of these people.”
One of the biggest challenges, according to Felts, was keeping intimate scenes powerful without using camera angles or cuts.
“With movies, you can always cut to a new scene or cut back and forth between characters, but you can’t do that on stage,” Felts said.
Felts also cut the janitor character, Carl.
“He just kind of comes up, and in the play, when you have him there, it just makes it a little stagnant,” he said.
The library serves as the home base in the play, since it is the main setting of the movie.
Felts worked with his locations, placing actors in different places onstage and in the wings. The production crew also built the set, creating desks and even an operational door.
Freshman Alex Kamphorst will play John Bender, a character dubbed “the criminal.” He agreed that, in finding the heart in each of the stereotypes, “The Breakfast Club” has remained relevant today.
“We all came in with different expectations and different presumptions about everything from the show to each other,” Kamphorst said. “And yet, in that one rehearsal, we were able to talk and laugh, and the bizarre thing is it reminded me of the movie – the six of us strangers, coming in wondering what the hell we were doing, and then slowly getting to know each other.”
None of the actors in the performance are theater majors, and Felts admires their growth throughout the process.
“It’s been a really ensemble effort, as a show like this should be,” he said. “I’m really happy to bring [“The Breakfast Club”] here to the University of Miami.”
The opening night of the show will include an 80s Night Party starting at 7 p.m. Thursday in front of the Cosford. There will be free Buffalo Wild Wings, a photo booth, a costume contest, slap bracelets and more. The play begins at 8 p.m.
IF YOU GO
What: QuantUM Entertainment’s “The Breakfast Club”
When: 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday
Where: Cosford Cinema, Dooley Memorial second floor
Cost: Free
> The Cinematic Arts Commission will host an 80s Night Party 7 p.m. Thursday in front of the Cosford.