Travis Winkler's First Act

Travis Winkler grew up in a house full of stories.

The 22-year-old Montgomery resident remembers his parents telling him grand stories—some ancient myths, some tales from history. From an early age, Winkler knew he wanted to be a storyteller, too, and, if possible, do it for a living.

This weekend he’ll take a major step toward making that dream a reality. Winkler’s first full-length play, Obligatio, will premiere Friday night at the Perry Theatre at Aurora University, where Winkler is a senior studying theater, English and music.

It’s the culmination of years of work, and the gregarious Winkler couldn’t be happier with the results.

“It feels amazing,” he said Wednesday, minutes before seeing one of the final dress rehearsals of his work. “When it comes to writing, a play is a story and the story is all in my head. But to see it live, the story right in front of you …”

This particular story is one of love and betrayal, set in 16th Century Europe. It follows Joan, a woman torn between two lovers and her duty to her king.

But lest you think it’s all stuffy costume drama, Obligatio (Latin for "obligation") contains several sword fights and a couple of dance sequences, and many laugh-out-loud moments. It’s serious, but a good time as well.

It’s been a long road to get to the Perry Theatre stage, but it’s one Winkler has enjoyed. It took 18 months and six drafts to finish writing Obligatio, which serves as his senior seminar project. For the past year, he worked on the story scene by scene with Denise Blank, assistant professor of theater at Aurora University.

“I’d write a few scenes, and take them to her, and we’d talk about them,” he said.

He also worked closely with associate professor John Curran, who directed the play.

“When I first read it, I saw the potential in it,” Curran said. “He has great potential as a writer.”

Curran has never worked on a student production before, but he said he’s directed five new plays in his career, and Winkler’s work stacks up well next to them.

This is music to the young playwright’s ears. Winkler, who has been acting since the 3rd grade (and stars in the Perry Theatre’s next production, Lend Me a Tenor, opening in April), is determined to make the theater his career.

He had once intended to be an English or math teacher, he said, but with Blank’s guidance, he jumped into acting and scripting with both feet. He’s already working on a second play, he said, and he’s applying to four different graduate schools, hoping to get his MFA in theater.

But first he’s looking forward to Obligatio's opening. He said Curran and the actors have brought out elements of his script he didn’t anticipate, particularly in the more intense scenes at the end of Act One.

During Wednesday night’s run-through, Winkler could be seen laughing and applauding as the cast brought his words to life. He compares it to the movie Inkheart, in which a character asks to be written into his own book to meet his characters.

“I envisioned this so much differently than it came out,” he said of one scene, “and (now) it’s so much better.”

Obligatio opens Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Perry Theatre, in the Aurora Foundation Center, 1305 Kenilworth Place in Aurora. It continues Saturday, and then runs from Feb. 23-26; all shows are at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.