As the semester comes to a close, theatregoers can enjoy a collection of multiple stories that have been directed, acted and staged entirely by students. The student-directed Fall One Act Festival opens on Friday, Nov. 15 and runs through Nov. 17 in Johnson Studio Theatre. Unlike most theatre productions, the One Acts are a combination of a month’s work by eight individual groups, who often rehearse simultaneously in different rooms in Johnson Hall.
A final project for students in the Directing II class, each play is chosen by a student director and assigned two stage managers from the Stage Management class. Students audition for the plays in mid October and rehearsal schedules are built based on the students in each production. For many of the students, the One Acts are their first time directing a show. The eight shows are divided into “Group A” and “Group B,” with each group performing twice during the weekend.
Junior theatre design major Kersey Hanna directs a Group B show, “I Dream Before I Take the Stand,” a two-person drama about victim blaming in a sexual assault case. The play follows a woman who was assaulted and a defense lawyer who is cross-examining her. “He distorts her innocent walk through the park and he’s basically kind of slut-shaming her,” Hanna says. “The audience has to be the jury and weigh the consequences of what’s going on.”
According to Hanna, despite the difficulty of balancing the schedules of the actors and stage managers, the rehearsal process has gone smoothly. “Working with these two actors – they’ve been great. They’ve worked really hard and they’ve put a lot of time and effort into it. I’ve had goals set at rehearsals and we usually meet all those goals,” says Hanna.
Junior theatre education major Fark Farris directs “Equinox” in Group A, a story about an investigator questioning a 14 year old girl who she suspects was assaulted in the middle of the night. “[Equinox] is about the power of perception and your take on your reality. It is about a girl who, it has been insinuated has been sexually assaulted and it’s all about her game that she plays with those that are involved.”
“Equinox” is Farris’s first full-length directed piece, having previously directed children in monologues and scenes. “This is a completely different ball game because it’s your peers, it’s full shows and you are in charge of absolutely everything,” Farris says. “It is stressful and it makes you realize that there is so much that goes into a show that you don’t realize until you’re in the middle of tech week. It’s been a very amazing experience though.”
Taylor Evans, a junior theatre and mass communication double major directs “Choose Your Own Apocalypse,” a Group A show about two women whose complex relationship began inside a religious cult. “One of [the women] is in a cult currently and the other one is a journalist who went into the cult undercover for three years, and they became best friends while in that cult. A lot of drama has gone down between them and they are now meeting for the first time in years to kind of even the playing field and talk it out.” Evans says.
Evans says that the process has been “exhausting” for those working on the show, but in a good way. “It’s the good exhausting where you feel like you’ve really done good. You genuinely don’t realize how much work goes into it until you do it,” Evans says. “It’s just so many small, intricate parts that you don’t think about.”
While most of the shows are dramatic, Group B includes comedies “WILF,” “I Didn’t Want a Mastodon” and “A Circular Play–a Play in Circles,” and Group A includes a dark absurdist comedy, “Sinkhole.” Both groups are intended only for mature audiences, as the plays contain strong language, sexual and violent themes and some drug use.
Group A performs on Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 16 at 2:00 p.m., and Group B performs on Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 17 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for the general public. Seating in the studio theatre is general admission.
Photos: Olivia Esselman/ The Johnsonian
