Lauren Perone directs actors during rehearsal for her Dramafest skit
Chloe Rippe
Editor of Arts, Entertainment and Technology
Students playwrights have already written and submitted their scripts to NCHS Theatre coordinator, Dee Alexander for the annual studentrun theatre production, Dramafest, which will take place from May 1st to 3rd.
Among the students recognized for their scripts are first place winners juniors Charlotte and Lillian Engel, second place winner senior Lauren Perone, third place winners junior Elizabeth Koennecke and junior Lauren Mellinger, and fourth place winner senior Annie Ludtke.
With this years theme of “Snap”, student playwrights found ways to adapt the concept to a variety of scenarios. Charlotte and Lillian drew on inspiration from the past for their story. “Our story is based on the photograph from VJ Day, with the soldiers kissing in Times Square,” Charlotte said. “We decided we would write a show with a storyline leading up to that snapshot of the moment, and everybody would freeze at the end.”
Annie, who has written scripts for Dramafest her freshman and sophomore years, found inspiration elsewhere. “My play is about two friends in New York City who come across a poetry hut while exploring late at night,” she said. “One friend is really into it, and the other doesn’t buy it, which serves as the main conflict.”
While some students, such as Charlotte, Lillian and Annie, have participated in past Dramafest productions, this is the first year for others, like Lauren who cowrote a script with junior Anna Oxman.
“This was the first one I’ve written, so I stopped with many ideas because I didn’t really know what was considered good,” Lauren said.
Despite her lack of experience, Lauren was able to create a second placewinning story with Anna. “It starts with a girl who’s around nineteen to twenty years old and venting to her therapist, and it goes to flashback when she feels that everything in her life is falling,” Lauren said. “It goes to four specific moments in her life, but her therapist doesn’t understand that there is this internal battle inside of her head, and all of her friends and therapist tell her to ‘snap out of it’ which is how we included the theme.”
In order to develop compelling stories, students developed their own methods of writing scripts. Lauren said that she found it easier to start from the end when developing her story, while experienced writers like Charlotte and Lillian resorted to the methods they used in previous years to write their script. “We’ve kept the same format the past few years,” Lillian said. “For the process, we come up with every idea we can
and pick the one we can both see something happening with, like an idea we can both work off of.”
Scripts must also include the technical aspects of the show. “Not only do you have to do the storyline but you have to write the stage directions down on paper,” Charlotte said. “The people aren’t going know what you’re thinking, but you also try to leave some up to interpretation so they can take their own meaning from it.”
Some of the students who submitted to Dramafest have participated in theatre in past productions. “Personally, I’ve always enjoyed writing, and I have always been highly involved in the theatre program, so this was the perfect avenue to include both,” Elizabeth said, who submitted a play with Lauren Mellinger. “This is actually my first time writing a script. It was a great experience, and I got to use my knowledge of being onstage to try and help move the script along, and I know it certainly helped.”
Annie similarly has a history in the theatre that influenced her interest in script writing. “I absolutely love performing, it will always be my first love, but there are so many important pieces to the puzzle of theatre,” she said. “Playwriting has always struck me as fascinating, because I was always
that kid that thought, ‘What if the playwright decided to do XYZ to the script?’ and I would build off from there.”
The award recipients also said that they encourage people with little theatre experience to participate. “It’s an interesting way to get involved in theatre because anybody can audition for it and it’s not as strict, because there’s no singing or dancing,” Charlotte said.
Though the winning plays have been chosen, the playwrights’ jobs are not over. NCHS theatre stage manager senior Avery Wrenn assists the playwrights with renting props and booking rehearsal times for their shows. “I help coordinate student directors, but the kids who submit have the majority of say in terms of planning,” she said. “I let them know about deadlines and Tech Week and if they need to pull props I keep track of what they’re pulling and make sure they discuss what lighting they want with the technical designer.”
Students have worked for weeks on developing their stories and will continue to rehearse and plan up until the premiere dates. “It was nice to just be on my own and think through a plot and an idea on my own,” Annie said. “Dramafest can take as much or as little time as you want it to. But, of course, the
more work you put into it, the more rewards you get out of it.”
