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Curtain rises for student-directed plays
Donna Mavros Festival runs Friday, Saturday
January 22, 2016
The Donna Mavros Festival will be taking place in the SC PAC on Jan. 22 and Jan. 23. The fest consists of five student-directed plays: “Candid,” “Impromptu,” “Next,” “The Transition of Doodle Pequeño” and “10 Ways To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse.”
“It’s great because I have total control over the costumes, lights, sound, direction and everything else to enhance the play,” Kayla Devereux ‘16, student director of “Candid,” said.
In order to be eligible to be a director, a student must meet certain requirements. He or she must have thespian status, which means having 20 points gained by participating in acting and crewing shows. In addition, students who wish to direct must first serve as an assistant director to a production.
“They are on their own,” Theatre Board member Ann Dudek said. “They are motivating their cast to memorize and really working with their cast on direction and character work. Quite a lot of responsibility is put on their shoulders.”
The student directors have been preparing for the festival since the summer. They had to select the play they wanted to direct and then later on determine the cast for their play, Dudek said.
“[Student directed plays] are incredibly fun, and allow for the actors and director to have more freedom, from the rehearsal locations to stage directions,” Caroline Garrow ’17, cast member of “10 Ways To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse,” said.
Within the five different plays there is a wide variety of genres, which include comedy, coming of age, art and war, Dudek said.
“Despite apocalyptic themes, the mood is overall light hearted and hilarious,” Garrow said.
The student directors had to organize after school rehearsals for all cast members.
“It was difficult to have full-cast rehearsals in the beginning just due to everyone having different schedules,” Devereux said. “The cast had to remind me a lot in the beginning that we needed to meet to rehearse but they were off book super early and put in a lot of work outside of rehearsals.”
The week prior to the festival all directors and cast members were able to practice in SC PAC.
“I’m excited for everyone to see it and I can’t wait to see the other shows,” Devereux said. “From what I’ve heard from the other directors all the shows are in a really good spot and we just need an audience.”
The Theatre Board members have read the scripts of all the plays, but have yet to see the stage set up, Dudek said.
“[Student directed plays] are a great opportunity to showcase the talent of LT theatre,” Dudek said. “We always hope that we get a good crowd.”
Check out this link for exact times of productions:
