May 3 , 2007
Annual one-act play festival to showcase work of students
Jason E. Weber
weberj@marietta.edu
In what has become a tradition in the Marietta College Theatre Department, A new batch of student directors are being given the opportunity to flex their leadership muscle in the 2007 One-Act play festival which runs this tonight through Sunday in both the Friedrich Theatre and Studio 101.
Eight new directors have been working diligently all year in a two-semester-long directing class offered by the theatre department and taught by Department Chair, Stephen M. Rader.
During the course of the year, they have been taught the basics of script analysis and the fundamentals of transforming that script to a full stage production.
The students have studied blocking (how the actors move on stage), play structure (how the playwright has assembled the play and how that is effective), thematic analysis (why the playwright wrote the play), and viable acting approaches for specific works (how to convey the structure and themes).
The process for these One-Act plays began over Christmas break when the students were sent on a mission by Rader to find plays that they would enjoy working on.
They spent the next month or more pouring over play anthologies to find something good. Once they had a few possibilities they focused on narrowing down to one play, the play they would produce as part of this festival.
Then the students began an indepth analysis of their plays which required them to go line by line and understand every intricacy that the play had to offer. During this process they had to develop a thirty-page paper detailing their findings.
Next, they went into the casting process for the first time as young directors. Over fifty students from across all disciplines auditioned for approximately thirty-five roles.
The manpower necessary to put forth this weekend is astonishing. Nearly all of Marietta’s theatre majors are involved in one capacity or another. This number is supplemented by a slew of students from other disciplines whose theatre experience ranges from none to a few years of performance.
The varying degrees of experience placed an interesting challenge on the student directors most of whom had never tackled a task like this. However, the directors have risen to the occasion to present eight new productions that are sure to entertain audiences of students and community members as the campus prepares to enter the grueling week of finals.
The plays have been divided into two performance groups with their own performance venues. Each will receive two performances over the course of the weekend. Group 1 will perform tonight and Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. in the Friedrich theatre and will consist of “The Philadelphia” and “Sure Thing” directed by Matthew Samardge, “A Chance Meeting” directed by Paul Freshwater, “A Way With Words” directed by Mandy Bics, and “When Fat Chicks Rule The World” directed by Beck Hardt.
Group 2, which will perform Friday night and Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. in Studio 101, consists of “Does This Woman Have A Name” directed by Maggie Smith, “Goodnight Please” directed by Peter Franz, “Portrait of a Madonna” directed by Adam Marzhauser, and “The Adventures of Captain Neato-Man” directed by Laura Horn.
The 2007 One-Act play festival will run Tonight, May 3, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. through Sunday night, May 6, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. Performances take place in both the Studio theatre and the Friedrich theatre.
Consult the schedule for clarification. All performances are class projects and therefore free and open to the public. No reservations will be taken so seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.
