By Katie Brendlinger The One Act festival has been a Wilson Theater Company tradition for many years. Each year, at the end of the second quarter, students from the Senior Acting and Directing class pick one acts to direct. The students are in charge of picking the show, casting it, putting together the crew, deciding on props and costumes, keeping a budget together and directing their actors. It’s a long and rewarding process that ends with a three to four day festival where each director has their show performed twice in front of an audience.
It all starts with the search for a play. Each student director goes searching through catalogs online, or through the scripts Mr. Reppert has in his library, and comes to a decision about what play they would most like to direct. The plays can be comedies, dramas, romances or tragedies. Any play can be used so long as it’s one act long. After the scripts are chosen, Mr. Reppert orders the rights to perform them and buys copies for everyone involved, specifically the director and the number of characters. Then begins the casting process. First, there are the general auditions. All of the directors chose monologues from their scripts for potential actors to perform. They sit together and watch each person go and decide who they want to come to their specific call backs. After the callbacks, the directors decide who they want in their show. Actors can get called back for all of the shows but can only get cast in two. Because of this rule, a casting discussion is required between the directors to see who gets who. It’s ultimately up to the actor and what show they would prefer to be in. After this discussion, the cast list is posted and rehearsals can begin. Mr. Reppert believes that there should be a goal, something to work on, in each rehearsal. That goal can be blocking the show for the first time, working on character development, finding ways to emphasize emotions and moments and many other things that will improve the show. The rehearsals are run solely by the director and whoever they chose to be their stage manager. The director also chooses who helps with stage crew, lighting, sound and various other crew positions. After rehearsals have started, the directors begin to gather together the props, costumes and set pieces that their show requires. They have access to the prop and costume storage spaces but can also buy them so long as it fits in the 50 dollar budget. One acts tend to be minimal, so this isn’t hard to manage. Once the shows are ready, it’s time for the festival, which is usually in April. The director gets to watch the result of all their hard work. It’s a rewarding process and well worth enrolling in the Senior Acting and Directing class.
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