This April, the Green Room Theatre Company put on the Senior Directed One Acts in the Black Box. The One Acts are a chance for seniors to show their talents in directing.
This year, seniors got to direct their own shows. The performances included This is a Test directed by Briana Engstrom and technical directed by Sydney Shingle; A Prayer for Mary Catherine directed by Lexie Gutierrez and technical directed by Jonathan Martinez; Selfie directed by Amy Preston and Nicholas Salinger; The Perfect Ending directed by McKensie Finan and technical directed by Tino Krastov; and Why Do We Laugh directed by Ally Carnes and Katie Pellettiere.
“The biggest preparation came from the seniors themselves. The seniors had to review a bunch of plays and decide which one they wanted to propose to me at a pitch meeting. Those pitch meetings allowed them to claim their top choice and issues there might be with the play,” said Cher Schwartz, the One Act coordinator.
Performances were on April 8 through 10 in the Black Box. The show sold out on the last two nights of the performances.
“I reviewed my lines whenever I could to prepare and practiced as much as possible during rehearsals,” said Simon Kasemeier, the civil defence warden in The Perfect Ending.
Students auditioned on February 23 and began rehearsal for the shows on February 29.
“My favorite part of putting on these shows was meeting new, kind and amazing people and scaring the audience,” said Julianna Bennett, who played Mary Catherine in A Prayer for Mary Catherine.
The show This is a Test is about a girl named Alice in a history class who has not studied enough for her test, but the test seems to be impossible anyway. She can barely get answers down with the class, her daydreams, and her test working against her. Alice was played by Sara Vander Ploeg. A Prayer for Mary Catherine is about a principal named Elaine who moved to a Catholic school to help teach there. She is more of a woman of science, but when she meets Mary Catherine, she has a life changing experience. Elaine is played by Stephanie Johnson and Mary Catherine is played by Julianna Bennett. Selfie is about a group of high schoolers finding who they are in hard times in their lives. The Perfect Ending is about the humorous side of the end of the world. The mother of the house in the apocalypse must make sure she is the perfect host the whole way through. The mother is played by Anna Taylor. Last but not least, Why Do We Laugh is a story about a relationship between a boy and girl from age 5 and 6 to age 66 and 67.
“Ever since my freshman year, I was determined to direct a one act my senior year. I would count down each year until I could finally direct, and now I can’t believe it’s over,” said the director of The Perfect Ending, McKensie Finan.