Renegade Productions, an up-and-coming organization at Elon University, is a student-managed platform that offers an outlet for undergraduates to produce, design and perform any variety of performance pieces.

The organization began with provisional status from the Student Government Association in 2011, when Class of 2013 Elon alumnus and BFA Acting major Logan Sutton recognized the need for a means by which students could develop independently sourced theatrical material.

“Before my time at Elon, Renegade Productions existed but only as a name that was haphazardly tagged onto non-departmental, student-led productions,” Sutton said. “There was no organization, except perhaps Alpha Psi Omega, that concerned itself with realizing student-produced work.”

After Sutton took the roles of writer, director and producer of “Bangarang” his sophomore year, he discovered how much Elon needed to facilitate students in bringing their own dramatic endeavors to life.

After this realization, Sutton sought out guidance from faculty within the Department of Performing Arts and began the process of instigating Renegade Productions’ fully functioning role as an accredited group on campus.

Because of the organization’s newly achieved status, there have only been a handful of past productions. But the organization hopes for an eventful year, after spending much of the past semester focused on gaining complete recognition from the SGA.

“Last year, meetings were about approaching SGA and the board and presenting our organization as a full organization that wanted to be a big part of campus life,” said senior Jenna Hokanson, executive director of Renegade Productions.

Soon after the organization was founded in 2011, Elon graduate Rebekah Carmichael utilized the organization as a means to produce an original piece, “Relationships of a Non-Conformist.” Carmichael was followed by several other students who were able to work with source material of their own through the organization. While still a student, Sean Liang, who graduated in 2013, was even able to use Renegade Productions to procure the opportunity to teach his own master class in improv.

Most recently, 2013 Elon graduate Claire Manship worked with the organization to better progress a character, known as “Darla,” which she had been developing for years. During the process, the board of Renegade Productions was able to work with Manship to give insight into functionality of “Darla.”

“She used this experience as an opportunity to see if this was something she could use as a performance piece in years to come,” Hokanson said.

Now officially recognized by SGA, Renegade Productions expects an influx of performance proposals from students, as soon as they have organized the application process later this semester.

The organization consists of eight board members and typically a few at-large members that actively contribute and are expected to eventually fill openings on the board. Though the board itself is not expansive, the organization is by no means exclusive or restricted to performing arts majors.

“We have a comm major on the board,” Hokanson said. “Everyone who works on these productions is playing a part in Renegade.”

Plans to begin the application process to welcome new at-large members will start at the beginning of the school year. Though the organization does not collect dues, it hopes to expand upon its budget, allotted by the SGA, through fundraising. No definitive plans have been made, but board members say there are many exciting ideas in the works.