Senior Directing Showcase

“[I’m doing a couple scenes from the movie “Juno” which is about a girl who gets pregnant at 16 and she decides to give it to a couple that is going to adopt her baby“

“My scene is from a book called “An Abundance of Katherine’s” it’s a coming of age with some romance elements type of story.”. “I was a little nervous to be giving direction to everyone, [but] as Ii started to do it I developed more confidence.”.

The curtain call is soon for the Theater 3 seniors, but not soon enough before one last hurrah. On October 24, these hard working actresses will showcase their hardwork and dedication to the 4-year program with what is deemed as the ‘Senior Directing Showcase’. But instead of being on-stage acting out scenes, they will be house left (in laymans terms, off-stage)- directing the scenes. These seniors get around two months to pick and choose what scenes (from a movie, book, play or directly from their imagination) they would like to direct and must cast actors, plan out the scenes and execute the job well… all before the night of the show

“It’s a compilation of scenes from a movie called “Collateral Beauty”, it’s about a man named howard [who] writes letters to time, love and death. “I’m really just using experiences from theater and older people that I’ve played to help me and my actors reach within themselves and find these characters on themselves.”

The showcase being an annual tradition for the Theater 3 program, expectations are high for these seniors – however, their confidence does not waver through the process, even in the difficult times.

“The last four years… watching the other seniors do it gave me a good idea of what I was going into…” Ella Player said. Player reflects on the proccess, adding that throughout her years as a student, “You can watch… other teachers direct… but you really have to do it yourself to learn…”.

“My project is “An Adaptation of the Last Five Years… mine takes more after the musical.. essentially it’s a two person scene where Kathy and Jamie are going through the trials and tribulations of their relationship.”

Directing a typical play with the basic elements with it (plot,theme, dialogue, characters, setting) is no easy feat. However, directing a small play with 17 different scenes “is a major setback…trying to keep under 10 minutes…” Mia Karvounis said. That’s the catch. A requirement for all theater students during the showcase is to keep each play under 10 minutes. Some may find it easy and others like Mia Karvounis may find it more of a struggle to accomplish.

But at the end of the day, the biggest requirement for this project is teamwork and comradery. “The project is an infamous thing… I think it’s cool that I get to meet new people I’ve never worked with before… and I get to see what it was like for all the seniors before me,” said Belle Flanagan.

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