As the audience members took their seats, the lights dimmed as the One Act productions began.
One Acts are 10- to 20-minute plays directed and performed by students in the spring semester. In total there were nine performances directed by seniors Alexandra King, Isabelle King, Chris Kositprapa, Chloe Wilson, Sanjna Pandit, Pierce Makowitz, Ella Schmulen, Ben Evans and Jack Denechaud.
There were two to five people working on these projects almost every day. Everyone rehearsed until their act was close to perfection.
Senior Isabelle King’s One Act production was called “Ten Dollar Drinks.”
“My One Act was about two actors from the same company. One of them is a famous Academy Award winner who wants her not-so-famous, stay-at-home mom colleague to admit she’s jealous of her accolades,” King said.
Each director invested hours of work into these plays, which was evident when watching the performances.
“My favorite part of the experience was seeing everything come together for the performances,” Markowitz said. “My show had a very ambitious tech aspect for a black box production, which required a lot of time and effort to do well. The product made my team extremely proud.”
With fewer constraints than full-length productions, senior directors have the freedom to explore unique narratives and experiment with different theatrical techniques.
Even the smaller moments were memorable for the directors.
“One of my favorite moments was actually our first rehearsal together,” said senior Sanjna Pandit, who directed “Where America Runs.” “To celebrate the show’s central location, I bought Dunkin’ Donuts and coffee for the cast. We all sat together, eating and drinking while I took the cast through my director’s pitch, and then we did a script read-through. The energy in the room was palpable, and I loved watching the cast begin to identify parts of themselves with their characters.”
Directors shared how thankful they were for their experience and their hard-working cast.
“While I definitely really enjoyed getting to write the script, I loved working with the people most of all,” said senior Jack Denechaud. “My actors… formed a tight-knit group of people who I’m truly honored to know.”
