Sara Dreiling, an English teacher and sponsor of the International Thespian Society club, sat quietly at the back of an auditorium at Lake Forest High School last week while seniors Bradley Berklich and Aiden Kinsella rehearsed with student actors on stage.
The students were rehearsing for the annual Senior-Directed One-Act Plays. The project gives students a chance to stage six plays in just 10 days. The plays were chosen well in advance, but auditions for actors took place just 10 days before the Aug. 26 performance.
“The biggest challenge is the sheer amount of hours working with all the actors,” Berklich said. “As a director, you have to get people out of their shell. We have one girl we cast as a very old man. I got her to yell at me for 30 minutes to get her loud enough (for the play).”
More Top Picks Beauty And Personal Care
Berklich and Kinsella wrote their play, a comedy titled “On Air,” at the beginning of the summer. It revolves around a radio host in a small town who keeps listeners informed of issues and also works out his own personal issues in the process, Kinsella said.
“Freshman year, I saw the one-acts, I said that was really cool, let me see if I can be a part of that,” Kinsella said. “I got introduced to high school in a way no one else I knew was. I made friends who were older than me and had a deeper understanding of high school.”
The Senior-Directed One-Act plays have been performed annually since at least the mid 1990s, Dreiling said.
“Because it’s a one-act versus a full-length play, there aren’t as many moving pieces,” Dreiling said. “Rehearsal periods don’t need to extend as much. It’s a short, intense period where the students keep up their energy and have fun with it. Also, it’s the first week of school. They aren’t as laid in with their classes and extracurricular activities.”
Seniors Elizabeth Clayton and Peter Sullivan said they did have to make some adjustments to the short time frame.
“Our script was 45 minutes,” Sullivan said. “We had to cut a whole 15 minutes from it. We asked permission from the (script) publishing company.”
The two seniors are directing a play titled “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”
“What would happen if the grim reaper got fired from his job?” Sullivan said. “It deals with the chaos that ensues.”
They’ve been rehearsing 90 minutes a day but have had to shift rehearsals times and locations. The bigger challenge has been working with novice actors.
“Liz and I have been going with good cop, bad cop (when directing),” Sullivan said.
Twitter: @reporterdude