by Sofia Colignon | staff writer
Auditions for the senior directed plays will be held on Thursday, February 22nd from 4:15 o 7:30 p.m. The show includes four plays directed by seniors Ashley-Taylor Barnes, Madison Beeson, Skye McClenny, Roni Buhler, Amy Navarro, Gabby Garcia, Katherine Coppock, and Lauren Brower and it will take place on the Johnson theatre black box from Thursday, May 31st to Friday, June 1st.
“I’m looking for originality, I’m looking for character, I’m looking for enthusiasm in stage presence, I’m looking for just basic things that you want in an actor that is putting all their effort into trying to get a role,” senior director Roni Buhler said.
The show includes the plays ‘The Chopin Playoffs’ by Israel Horovitz, directed by Skye McClenny and Roni Buhler, ‘Dinner with friends’ by Donald Margulies, directed by Lauren Brower and Katherine Coppock, ‘The Language Archive’ by Julia Cho, directed by Gabby Garcia and Amy Navarro, and ‘Sylvia’ by A.R. Gurney, directed by Ashley-Taylor Barnes and Madison Beeson.
“I just wanna make sure that everyone that we end up casting, and even our stage manager, comes out of it a more experienced and better actor, just because we wanna teach them and we want them to continue growing throughout their next couple of years here, however that long is,” senior director Amy Navarro said.
During auditions, both the theatre and senior directors and sit in the theatre black box, and, one by one, students go inside and audition.
“The fun thing is, you get to direct them yourself, and you get hep from our directors, and all of us have another director that we’re working with, one of our friends, and we can all can pitch ideas and work together to create something that is worth it and it’s beautiful,” senior director Katherine Coppock said.
Rehearsals will begin on April 9 for all four plays.
“Whoever auditions, auditions for all four of the senior directed shows. The seniors director finally sit down with each other [the next day] and deliberate on who gets who, because some might want the same actor, [so] we have to deliberate and make compromises as to who gets that one actor. We say it’s worth fighting for them, but, it’s probably less aggressive than it actually sounds,” Buhler said.
One of the major purposes of this show is to give students, mostly underclassmen, who haven’t gotten the chance to be leads in plays the opportunity to get them their start and the support they need to get comfortable with acting.
“I wanna make [these plays] special by having a bit more theatrics in regards to how the show is blocked. I really hope that the show is a bit more complex than other senior directed shows and [that] it has more blocking and more lights and music; a lot more theatrically,” senior director Ashley-Taylor Barnes said.
Another main purpose of the show is to help the seniors directing it gain experience and leadership skills.
“I expect to come out a better director, because I’ve already gotten the chance to direct scenes in class, but this is different; it’s working with a bunch of people and trying to keep down on the control. I expect to be better at time management after this, and working with someone else, because I am a co-director, so I think at the end of this, I’m going to be better at working with other people, and I think [Gabby Garcia] will be too,” Navarro said.
