Update 5/14: The performance raised $81 in donations. The drama department and creative writing class each received half of the profit. The drama department will use the money to pay for the 2013-2014 play productions, and the Creative Writing class will use the money to pay for their anthologies.
Original Story: Four student-written and student-directed plays will be presented on May 13 at 6:00 pm in the OHS auditorium. Admission is free, but there’s a suggested donation of $5. The performance is called Epic Episodes, and proceeds will go to the creative writing and theatre classes. The plays were written by Creative Writing II students and directed by students in Theatre IV. Actors and actresses in the plays are from Theatre III and Theatre IV.
The first play, Not My Cup of Tea, was written by Maggie Cummings, Haylee Burton, and Aly Cavedo. “I think [the fact that students are performing my play] is kind of cool. Plays are a lot harder to write,” said Cummings.
Not My Cup of Tea features two brothers, Emmett (Zane Davie) and Blake (Dylan Perry), who both have strokes of good luck after drinking from cups of tea. Lauren Asbury, Paige Wilcox, and Damien Thomas play smaller roles. William Adams directed the play.
Adams said that he has a “laid back” directing style. “I let them read through it... then I do blocking. [I] let them do what they need to do.” Adams believes in “actor’s freedom.” The slogan Adams created for the play is, “Two brothers come to a seemingly unimportant choice in life, but it changes everything.”
The second play, The Choices We Make, was written by Alexis Prebula, Brittany Hester, and Katelyn Baity. Abby Peel is the play’s director. The play stars Nycol Lyons and Wilcox. Many other people in the class are extras. Some male names in the play were changed because the Theatre III and IV classes have few male actors, but Prebula said that “there’s no problem with that.” “I don’t care,” Baity added.
The play is about a girl named Melanie (Wilcox) who is bullied by a group of students. One student, Brianna (Lyons), defends her against the bullies, but after an unexpected event occurs, Melanie is left with no friends.
Peel said, “Directing a play to me is like when you know your house and you get up in the middle of the night to get ice cream... and you walk into a coffee table. It’s a learning experience and I’m excited that I’m learning.” She called directing “unnerving.” Her directing style is “learn[ing] as you go.” Asked to summarize her play in one sentence, Peel said, “Bullying is bad.”
The third play is A Crescendo of Dreams. It was directed by Perry and written by Tyler Blalock, Paul Fox, and Tiffany Connolly. The stars are Peel, Davie, Adams, and Asbury.
Fox was “a little worried” about seeing his play be performed on stage. “I think it [requires] a great deal of courage. It’s a great endeavour on both sides.”
A Crescendo of Dreams is about a group of patients in a hospital who share a lucid dream each night. In the dream, all of their injuries and disabilities are healed.
Perry said that he is “very excited to direct,” and his directing style is “listen[ing] to what my actors think is best.” Asked to preview the play, he said, “Akin to the style of Inception, A Crescendo of Dreams is a dramatic piece full of plot twists that keeps you thinking.”
The final play being performed is Solaramic. It was directed by Davie and written by Beth Bryan, Meleah Travis, and Maddie Norwood. Solaramic stars Perry, Asbury, and Amber Keller.
Travis said, “I’m excited [to see] how they portray the play. I just want to see the changes they made.”
The play is about two businesspeople, Lauren (Asbury) and Matt (Perry), who meet on a subway and become friends, then discover a dark secret that might tear their friendship apart. A businesswoman (Keller) appears in scenes to provide comedic relief.
Davie did not know what type of directing style he has because “this is my first time directing... I’m going to try to be as laid back as I can.” Asked to write a slogan for his play, he said, “My play is about enemies becoming friends.”
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