Director’s Showcase concludes its 2019 showings
All photos by Matthew Taylor.
Every fall semester, students in Associate Professor of Theater Dan Buck’s directing class are assigned a scene to direct from a play of their choice.
The chosen plays must fall within certain parameters laid out by Buck — they must be written in the student’s lifetime, must be realistic, must have two to four cast members for a standalone ten-minute scene and should comply with Lee’s community standards.
The resulting catalog of scenes are presented one after the other in an event called Director’s Showcase, which was split into two evenings of performances at 7 p.m. last Thursday and Friday.
Senior cinema major Jesse Holland said he was impressed by what he saw after attending the second night of performances.
“I thought it was the perfect amount of time. An hour and a half-man, that was nice,” Holland said. “I thought they were all so good. I can’t imagine doing something like that.”
Senior public relations major Jake Cash directed a scene from the play “Mauritius,” written by Theresa Rebeck, involving a dispute between two half-sisters and a stamp collector over the fate of several valuable inherited stamps.
“I think that everyone worked really hard and everyone should be proud of their performances and their scenes,” Cash said. “I’m glad that we all had the opportunity to make this together because I think a lot of people enjoyed it.”
Junior liberal studies major Claire Mitchell portrayed the character Jackie in Cash’s scene from “Mauritius.”
“The Director’s Showcase is a great option for people who aren’t theatre majors or minors, people just interested in trying out theatre or people who don’t have the space to dedicate an entire semester to a big production,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell has not been involved in a theatre production since high school. She says her involvement in Director’s Showcase has motivated her to audition in future Lee productions.
“I know when I say the scene was about stamps it probably sounds like it was snoozeville, but the scene is actually so captivating,” Mitchell said. “I am so proud of how hard my group worked throughout the whole process, and I think our final performance reflected that.”
Some students found themselves acting and directing in the showcase — junior film major Baxer Dowell portrayed the character Greg in A.R. Gurney’s play “Sylvia”, directed by Lane Dobbs during the Thursday show, while also directing a scene from “Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Simon Stephens.
“Director’s Showcase is a good opportunity for students to dip their toe in the field of directing with having the unique challenge of [finding] a play, set and written in their lifetime,” Dowell said. “It helps the people who come and see it to become more theater literate and be able to get a little taste of a lot of good plays that have come out in the past 20 years.”
Junior theatre major Macy Brown acted and directed over the two-night showcase, closing out the Thursday night showcase and starring as Mertis Katherine Graven in Annie Baker’s “John,” directed by Sally Oliver. Brown also directed a scene from Melanie Marnich’s “A Sleeping Country” on Friday night.
“Both were so much fun, but it was sometimes difficult to transition from director to actor. Many times the rehearsals for both were back to back,” Brown said. “I think acting in one also helped when directing my own because I had just been in the same position as my actors.”
Sophomore theatre major Laura Harris played the role of Julia, a sufferer of chronic insomnia in Brown’s selected scene from “A Sleeping Country.”
“Director’s Showcase is a really good place for theatre and non-theatre people to really get cultured,” Harris said. “It was really fun. Me and Macy are close, but it was a lot of fun because we were both there with the goal of portraying a story in a short amount of time, which was beautiful.”
Freshman cinema major Jemarcus Kilgore portrayed Adrian in a scene from “Antlia Pneumatica” by Anne Washburn, directed by Chaley Honeycutt, the fourth performance of the Friday showcase.
“[The showcase] was a fun time. I got to be a player — which I would never do in real life — so that was fun,” Kilgore said. “But all the scenes were great, the directors were fantastic and we had a really good turnout.”
Sophomore history and political science major Madelaine Setiawan also acted on Friday night, portraying Luanne Cooper in a scene from Deborah Zoe Laufer’s “Be Here Now,” directed by Tiffany Simms.
“I think it was cool to see people not just from Intro to Acting class, but also additional actors who aren’t theatre majors,” Setiawan said. “I think the directors really did a great job in directing. I think it’s hard, but they managed to do it really well and I’m very proud of them.”
The next Director’s Showcase is scheduled for the fall 2020 semester, featuring the talents of the currently to-be-decided class of directors and the actors of their choice.
