Maggie Owen, Reporter
@mowencourant
NCHS theater program puts on many well known musicals throughout the year. However, every spring, they make time in the production schedule for student playwrights and directors to try their hands at putting on their own plays. This past weekend, the NCHS Theater Department put on their 26th annual Drama Fest.
Drama Fest is a competition and students are invited to write and submit their own plays. This year, theater director Dee Alexander selected the 6 best plays to be independently produced. These plays are entirely student-run productions and can therefore be a lower stress way to get involved with the theater scene. “Being kid run, it is usually a casual environment,” a sophomore who wrote and directed the fourth place play “The New King,” Nick LaMorte said.
The writing process was different for every for every student playwright, some had their plays written months in advance spent the final weeks before the deadline perfecting them. Others let their inspiration take its time, staying up late to complete the plays the night before. “I came up with the idea back in November and just put it off and would only do a few lines here and there, but I finished the play at 3 AM after getting inspiration while trying to sleep,” a sophomore who received an honorable mention for his play “Restarting,” Jack Dunn, said.
Winning a spot in Drama Fest, however, is just the beginning of the directing process. Casting actors for each role, organizing rehearsals, and directing the student actors to properly depict their vision is often challenging for student directors. “Directors are given an enormous amount of free reign, but that means next to no structure,” Nick said. “There is a day organized to audition actors, and a week before the performance where rehearsals are scheduled at the high school, but other than that, it’s all up to us.”
Every director approaches directing their plays differently. “I’m told I’m a bit of an authoritarian when I give notes to my actors, correcting them on every aspect of the performance,” Nick said. “I hear others just sort of hand their actors a script and tell them to have at it. It all depends on who your actors are, who you are, and what your play is.”
For some of the younger directors, having to organize and critique upperclassmen proved to be an intimidating yet rewarding experience. “The directing process was difficult because I had upperclassmen in my show who wouldn’t be used to taking orders from a sophomore, but besides that, I loved it,” Jack said.
Despite all of the challenges to putting on their plays, according to the the student playwrights and directors, seeing their words come to life on the stage made it all worth it. “It’s great to explain the characters you’ve written to your actors and try to convey the vision you have for their behavior, while also seeing what new aspects your actors bring to your characters,” said Nick.”
