Hi there everyone,
We are picking up momentum in heading towards opening night
for the One-Act Festival. There are two panels this year of entirely student written,
directed, and designed shows outlined below.
Panel A:
Put on a Happy Face by Cole Haenggi,
directed by Samantha Johnson
directed by Samantha Johnson
The Guardian by Will Stone,
directed by Nate Pereira
directed by Nate Pereira
A Curious Series of Small Murders by
A.J. Glessner,
directed by Sarah Wagner
directed by Sarah Wagner
Sasquatch by Lucy Gregson,
directed by Amy Stein
directed by Amy Stein
Panel B: The Last Person on Earth by Rachel Stahly,
directed by Lindsey Esch
directed by Lindsey Esch
The Golden Raspberry by Srimanyu
Ganapathineedi,
directed by Wendy Zhang
directed by Wendy Zhang
The Three Snap Shoe Swap by Hannah Fretz,
directed by Mack Powers
directed by Mack Powers
While this
is a nice summary of all the shows in the panels, I have specifically been
working on my show The Last Person on
Earth for several weeks now, and this week I had to kill my darlings.
I started
this process wanting to work on a comedy after directing two strictly dramatic
pieces within the last year. When I saw the play submissions, I quickly
realized that I was most likely going to be directing a dramatic piece yet
again. I told myself I would try to find the humor in any piece that I got,
however, things were pushed in that direction more than I expected. Rachel essentially
rewrote her play with the feedback she received from myself and others at the
forefront of her mind and when I read it, I found myself laughing – a lot. I
wanted to approach this version almost like a play-in-a-day and tease out as
much humor as possible. In doing so, there were a couple physically comedic
bits that ideally had sound underlying them. The first time I received the
sound (from someone incredibly kind and skilled) and had a run through with all
of it was last Friday, and something wasn’t sitting right.
The
run-through on Saturday had me feeling the same way so I decided to add more
bits to make the outlandish one blend in better. The run on Monday with those
included had me still feeling off and I started to realize it’s because they weren’t
aiding in telling the story – not because there weren’t enough of them.
There is
still plenty of comedy throughout this piece because the characters are written
humorously. That was enhanced further by some of the directorial choices I made
and the choices that the actors layered on top of them. However, the larger comedic
bits simply weren’t honest enough for the piece and felt random rather than moments
that helped tell the story. They also tonally conflicted with the later time
lapse moment which is very somber in nature. These feelings were confirmed by
Liz when she sat in on the Monday run and explained how the tone of these
moments felt out of place and didn’t mesh with the later moment.
I was really
happy that she was there to tell me this because it led to me killing my
darlings much sooner than I would have. I wanted so badly for this show to be a
comedic outlet for me that at times, it was overshadowing the story itself. I
figured those feelings were simply because I didn’t see enough runs and that I
would get used to it over time, but I think more runs would have led me to the
same conclusion. Being able to come to terms with removing these moments now
and having a few additional runs to work out the kinks from changing things,
will be much more beneficial for myself and the cast.
While I had
to change something so dear to me in this play, it is because it better aligns
with my vision and the script. Removing these moments – killing my darlings –
will simply tell Rachel’s story better than if I had kept them, and that is why
there was no other option.
Stay tuned for opening night,
- Lindsey Esch
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