Ramseyer Auditorium is host to all sorts of theatre presentations at Bluffton. On March 28 and 30, it hosted the 10 Minute Play Festival, featuring plays directed by students in Play Direction, a course taught by Professor of Theatre and Communication Melissa Friesen.
Melissa Friesen. Photo by Nathan Heinze
The festival consisted of five short plays performed consecutively, each directed by a different student.
Friesen said the students start working on the assignment by the third week of class. The process involves picking the plays they want to direct and working on the logistics of producing the event, such as securing performance rights. Auditions are held later in the semester, and then the student director has about three works to rehearse with their student actors.
“Each director has control over how they’re going to use their rehearsal time,” said Friesen. “How they’re going to make their play, how they’re going to communicate to their actors, that kind of thing.”
Adam Shanaman. Photo by Nathan Heinze.
The process of choosing and directing a play is unique for each student in the class.
“I chose [my play] because it’s such a ridiculous and outlandish play, and I felt like it really embodied my personality,” said first-year early childhood education major Adam Shanaman, the director of “A Mustache and A Mattress.”
Micayla Hanover. Photo by Nathan Heinze.
Micayla Hanover, fifth-year English major and director of “It’s the Thought that Counts.” said the process was simple after she casted the right actors in her play.
Senior art and writing major Brista Drake had dual responsibilities as the director of “The Price” and an actor in first-year Adam Byram’s “Snack Time.”
“[Acting and directing] was a struggle,” said Drake. “I had to memorize lines and also direct lines. I felt like my play turned out exactly like I wanted it to, because I sat there and worked with my actors.”
Besides Drake, the other actors were not a part of the play direction class. Rather, they had auditioned voluntarily.
Brista Drake. Photo by Nathan Heinze.
Several students, including senior Benjamin Black and sophomore Kori Frey, held roles in multiple plays. Despite the large time commitment, Black, Frey and many of their fellow actors and directors expressed their enjoyment of the project.
Meghan Gibson, director of “Scheherazade,” said, “My actors did great. They did what I told them to, they made choices of their own – which is what you hope to do as a director – and they told the story.”
Audience members also shared in the enjoyment of the plays, laughing and chuckling throughout the performances.
“[The show] was very funny, interesting, and I had a lot of laughs,” said sophomore Victoria Wilson.
Each play received loud applause at its conclusion, marking the end of a successful learning experience for Play Direction students.
“I just think it’s a great project to include,” said Friesen. “It gives the students hands-on experience about what it’s like from start to finish to put together a play.”
Kori Frey and Benjamin Black rehearsing “A Mustache and A Mattress.” Photo by Nathan Heinze
