Last week, Phelicia’s plan to ruin Marcus and Devon ‘s relationship succeeded, while at the same time Devon hatched a plan to get back at his best friend for making a play on his girl. Meanwhile, Selena questioned her friend Phil about Marcus’ relationship with the new girl, Ayisha. And, Phil, being a loyal friend, let Marcus know that someone was on to the games he is playing. Sounds like a scene from one of America ‘s favorite afternoon soaps — As the World Turns, Passions or The Young and the Restless? Well, take a second guess. These are characters in twisted situations from Winston-Salem State University ‘s very own college soap opera ” Undergrad U. ,” which aired its first episode last semester on Ram TV 19. Freshmen Asha Herring is one of the shows many and growing fans. “It’s really interesting because it’s close to reality,” said Herring, a nursing major. Douglas Martin is the show’s creator, who has learned first hand that it is not easy to breath life into a program that grips viewers’ imagination. “A lot of work goes in to what we do,” Martin said, “the thing to remember is that you need people to help you. You can’t do everything by yourself. It shouldn’t have taken a semester to do a thirty minute show.” The soap opera has already produced two hours of programming and has two and a half more hours to complete before the shows hour-long series finale. One of the most interesting aspects of the show is that it is written, produced and stars students of WSSU and tells the tales of life on the fictional campus of Umberton University, a historically black college set in the American South. The cast of characters include the Casanova Marcus (Darryl Williams), the new girl who attracts the attention of all the guys on campus Ayisha (Kimberly Patrick), her freshmen roommate Simone (Nicole Lee), the book savvy, career-oriented Devon (Michael Parrot) and the vixen Phelicia (Tiandrea Holloway) whose entire purpose is to create drama. Show regular Daryl Williams said that he has learned a great deal from the experience, “Undergrad U. is basically the beginning of my dreams, giving me a reality check of how the television/entertainment industry is. “The whole cast is a pleasure to work with and I always look forward to the next episode. Who knows where it might take us,” he added. Other cast members include Kristen Turner, Temeka Dean, John Adams, Samuel Harley, Crystal Knox, Shibion Gabriel, Austin Mackey, and Sherod McCormick who make appear in supporting roles. “I have a strong interest in film and thought I could pull it off,” Martin said. “I didn’t just want to sit around in a studio all day. Mass comm is not all about news.” “It’s fun but again it is a lot of work, my original plan was to do something basic, but it turned out to be something bigger than it was with the assistant of my associate producer and the cast.” While Martin may handle all of the technical work, a group of writers have been bringing the show to life making Martin’s vision a little bit easy. They are Darryl Smith, Janell Lewis, Sam Harley and Brandolyn Love and Alyson Stanton. Script supervisor Brian Caesar said each writer provided his or her own storyline and script. The script is then blending for the episodes. “All I really do is connect the dots,” Caesar said. He said that there are bound to be comparisons with Undergrad U. and College Hill which appears on BET, but hopes that the people watching the show are getting a message from each episode. “I think there is room for everyone. But we have to be careful of the images that we put on screen. It often seems like we add to the problem, instead of finding a solution to them?” The producers would some day like to take the concept of a college-based soap opera to another venue. But for now the cast and crew of Undergrad U. are comfortable with the bond that has been established between them. They liken the experience of producing episodes to operating a small family. “We all get along, there are no big egos,” said Martin. He added that he would like to hear from the audience to get some response to the show. Fans can send an E-mail to the address on the flyers around campus. Kimberly Patrick, who plays Ayisha, said that while the storylines may touch on everything from HIV, to the problems of relationships or to gay encounters, the atmosphere on the set is always light hearted. “What shows on air isn’t as funny as what happens behind the scenes,” she said. For Herring, and other fans like her there is at least one dorm full of committed viewers, ready to see what happens next. “In Atkins they watch it like it’s American Idol. Everybody’s watching it.”