Poster Courtesy of David Rivas

When David Rivas, a former drama major, graduated from Hofstra University in May of 2020, they were met with a discouraging desert of job opportunities. However, Rivas decided this obstacle would not stop them from creating.

Rivas had intended to do the play “The Serpent” by Jean Claude Van Itallie for their senior project in Spring 2020, but it was unable to happen once Hofstra mandated that all students evacuate campus and attend classes remotely. “It never left my brain,” Rivas said, “and amidst COVID-19, I found myself thinking about it more and more … wishing it had happened.”

“The Serpent” is an adaptation of the biblical story about Adam and Eve and the committing of the “original sin.” Rivas found themself drawn to this story and decided to write, choreograph, direct and star in an original film inspired by the story of Adam and Eve. Comprised of past and current Hofstra drama students, “The Garden” is a completely self-made, movement-based film. “I choreographed it, I directed it, I’m in it,” Rivas said. “I even hand-dyed the costumes and sewed those together.”

Rivas grew up Catholic but aligns more with a sense of spirituality than Christianity. “Whenever I feel not quite myself, I always find myself going back to spirituality,” they said. “I’m very into mythology because I think it tells us exactly how to feel and exactly why we feel.”

Rivas believes that this particular story teaches the importance of “having patience and understanding with temptation.” They said it struck a chord with them during a particularly difficult time in their life when they were dealing with the stresses of the pandemic and temptations of their own.

“It acts as a sobriety allegory for me … It’s a narration of temptation with drug use,” they said. “It felt like magic … it was exactly the story I was going through and exactly the story I wanted to tell.”

“The Garden” will premiere on Monday, Nov. 15, at The Space at Irondale in Brooklyn, NY, a theatre transformed from a church. “It has Leviticus on the wall. It’s got bible quotes everywhere,” Rivas said. “It’s got the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus in the center of the wall … it’s very atmospheric.”

In the future, Rivas also hopes to have a showing of the film on Hofstra’s campus to connect with Hofstra students and share with them one of the main things they learned during their time in Hofstra’s department of drama and dance. “What Hofstra taught me is you take your artistry into your hands and you have agency over it,” they said.

Rivas has discovered a new passion and set of skills through the trials of the pandemic. They have plans to create another self-made original film in the future and hope to open their own production company in the long term.

“I’m out of a job,” Rivas said. “I’m struggling to make ends meet in the middle of an international pandemic that has thrown all of us out of whack and this is how I’ve dealt with it.”