Senior one-acts have been a tradition at Camas High School (CHS) for years, allowing students to cast actors and direct their own plays. Seniors, specifically, are given this opportunity to direct and showcase everything they have learnt throughout their years of drama, sharing their talent with a smaller audience.
“When I first got here, it was already a tradition, the previous teachers had done it, but it was already something I had implemented and used in long-term substitution with other schools,” Sean Kelly, CHS drama department head, said. “[There are three directors,] Cadence Lee, also known as Cadie Lee, Adisynn Ackley, also known as Adi Ackley, and Sophie Jacobs.”
However, before these seniors are allowed to direct, they must have experience beforehand in the drama department.
“I prefer that they have taken Drama I, with either me or at a previous school, and they have to participate in the shows we put on. That way, I know they’ve seen the process and understand the framework of how things work together,” Kelly said. “We learn about plot, character, theme, scene, location, [etc.].”
As for the actual directing, it takes an enormous amount of time to set everything up. Including rehearsals, scripts, and acting, which are all organized after the spring musical.
“[Actors] sign up and are asked to prepare a specific monologue. Once we do that, the directors break it down into pairings and scenes, and then they have the individuals read for specific roles in their plays,” Kelly said. “On top of that, there is a lot of preparation that goes into it, like reading the play over and over again, [to familiarize themselves, along with organizing] lighting, staging, costumes, props, scenery, and all of those things.”
Additionally, there are a couple of rules the directors have to follow, such as formatting, along with other limitations.
“I review all of the scripts because there is some subject matter we have to be careful about,” Kelly said. “The main thing they have to stick to is a ten-minute time limit, which is the hardest. I advise them to have at least one hour of rehearsal schedule for every page of text, depending on how dense the text is.”
There are three plays: one, titled Murder Most Fowl, is directed by Sophie Jacobs; another, Breaking Before You, is directed by Cadie Lee; and English Made Simple is directed by Adi Ackley.
“My senior one-act is about a murder mystery on a train, but the true killer is something you don’t expect,” Sophie Jacobs, one of the senior directors, said. “I’ve known I wanted to write and direct a play since my freshman year. Earlier this school year, I approached Mr. Kelly, our drama director, about writing a one-act, and he told me to get the draft to him before New Year’s, so he could make edits, and I was good to go.”
As for the writing process of plays, each director’s process is different, yet overall requires a creative and flexible mind that can come up with solutions easily.
“I definitely got stuck a lot at the beginning, I started several drafts [trying to come up with ideas.] I gave up trying to write from the beginning and started to write from the middle, where I had inspiration,” Jacobs said. “After that, things started flowing more smoothly, and it took me just a couple of days to get my first draft out.”
After the script is finished, the process of finding actors begins, which involves a lot of communication among all three directors.
“After callbacks, all of the directors, this year there are three of us, will sit down and hash out [who goes to each director],” Jacobs said. “It’s a lot of negotiation between the different directors; there is a lot of communication [when it comes to the casting], and I have a lot of actors double-cast with another show. So the director of that show and I had to sit down and work out all of our scheduling for the entire rehearsal process, so we could make sure each of us could get actors.”
For the actors, it’s almost an entirely different process, as they have to balance their own creative visions with the directors and find a middle ground through communication.
“In Sophie’s one-act, I play a guy named ‘Spencer,’ who is a sporadic inventor,” Charlie Irwin, a CHS senior, said. “We’ve had two rehearsals at this point, it really feels like the actors get to mess around and [properly] work with the characters to try to get an idea of where we want to go with it.”
“What you write sounds so much different in your head compared to the way the actors interpret or may say it or how it appears on stage,” Cadie Lee, one of the senior directors, said. “[For me,] it’s [an entirely] new perspective on theater.”
As for actors, immersing themselves in their characters is a difficult process and takes time to master and grow.
“I am playing James in Breaking Before You and Evan in Murder Most Fowl,” Josie Kotter, CHS freshman, said. “A lot of the scene is built out of where I am at with my characters, so that’s physicality, vocal affectations, and how I think they would go about what they’re saying and what they’re doing.”
As for the memorization of lines and staying in character, it can vary in difficulty depending on the structure or length of the script.
“This script in particular has been very difficult because of the complicated shifts in emotion and in tone and dipping out of the fourth wall and back in,” Markus Ruddy, a CHS sophomore, who is playing Jack in English Made Simple, said. “Once we get it down and the show is ready, it’s going to be very fun to watch and entertaining.”
“I am playing Jill in English Made Simple,” Violet Dainas, a CHS freshman, said. “I find it’s best to learn my character through learning the blocking and lines, and working with everyone. It’s easier to learn your lines and learn your character when you’re in character with other people.”
There are lots of people in the one-acts who are double-cast, meaning that they have to perform in two plays, leading to another challenge in the world of directing. Along with the challenge of double-casting, it takes time to ensure each character speaks differently, adding to the directors’ tasks.
“I’ve had a lot of experience playing multiple different roles at once, but having them live in the same space and in the same rehearsal timeline, it can be difficult to make each character distinct and not have them bleed into one another,” Kotter said.
“Since [I’m doubled casted,] I bounce around a lot. Well, when I want to visualize a scene, I paint a picture in my head and try to share the vision with the director,” Loki Whortonchoi, a CHS sophomore who has a role in both Breaking Before You and Murder Most Fowl, said.
All efforts combined, of the directors and actors, are what help the play come together for the audience to thoroughly enjoy.
“I really encourage everyone to come see the one-acts, and I think they’re all amazing,” Jacobs said. “You’ll really get to see a range of student talent both on stage and behind the scenes, you are seeing just pure student work out there, and I think that’s really special.”
