As they set each scene, new and experienced student directors prepared for the moment when the curtain would rise, revealing months of work, decisions and long nights that brought their vision to life.
“As a director, you’re in charge of rehearsal scheduling. First, when you pick out your play, you can’t just put it on however you want. You have to come up with a concept, a theme and a metaphor,” senior and student director Ruth Grissen said.
Grissen wasn’t new to directing. She began theater in sixth grade, and this was her third time leading a production. Like her, the other student directors brought years of experience and dedication to their roles.
“I got to direct at my summer camp, which was really cool,” Grissen said. “And then student-directing with Pippin, I got a lot of experience. I wanted to continue doing this, because I kind of fell in love with it this summer.”
Becoming a director was not an easy thing. A lot of preparation happened before the students submitted their play ideas to their teacher Ms. Murphy.
“We look through either online or Ms. Murphy’s shelf of plays, and find one that we are interested in and that we care about,” said senior and student director Ria Patel. “Then we show it to her and it has to be approved before we can direct it.”
Selecting a script was only the first step in building a show. Once the story was set, directors turned their focus to finding the actors who would match the characters’ personalities. Auditions happened at the end of October so the rehearsals could start as soon as possible.
“During auditions we take notes on what people are saying. We come up with our character descriptions beforehand, so if I see someone giving a really dramatic monologue about how they love someone, I’m like, oh, this person might be really great for this role because they are in love,” said Grissen.
When the actors were chosen, the directors had to build a rehearsal schedule that worked for the whole cast. The four plays happened back to back on December 6th, which gave them around a month to rehearse. They looked at each student’s conflicts, compared them, and pieced together a plan that fit around school and other activities.
“Since there’s other directors and there’s limited rehearsal space, we have to meet with each other to decide […] where we go. And then we also work with Ms. Murphy on her schedule because she has to be in the building when we rehearse and we also have to work with our actors,” said Grissen.
Since the plays lasted only 15 to 30 minutes, students had about a month to learn lines, block scenes, and build the pacing of the show. That short timeline pushed the cast to stay focused, because every rehearsal needed to move the production forward.
“We rehearse about four times a week, but only for, like, about an hour a day because these are short plays” said senior and actor in the play “Sorry, Wrong Number” Lauren Parks.
Even if the student-directed plays were a time commitment, it was good to enter the theater universe because the workload was manageable compared to other productions throughout the year.
“I did it for sophomore and junior year and it was really fun. Like, last year I had a really good experience and it was super fun and it made me want to direct.” Patel said.
