February 12, 2004

Taking risks in YSHS One Act Plays

YSHS students Lydia Gerthoffer, left, and Rose Blakelock hung lights and set the stage in Antioch’s Experimental Theater on Monday in preparation for the YSHS One Acts this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 13, 14 and 15.

Just over one month ago there was not a single word of a single act written for the YSHS’s annual One Act Plays.

But last Sunday night, in the basement of thespian Charlie Cromer’s house, 10 students put on a rough-cut version of one of the nine student-written, student-directed, student-crewed and student-performed plays that will run this weekend. The fun they were having and the laughs they were getting from a mock audience of two illustrated the spontaneous creativity that can take place when youth are given the freedom to run the show.

Laughing dominated Sunday’s rehearsal, but not because students felt prepared for opening night. For one thing, five days from the performance, not all of the plays were finished. Some had only been rehearsed two or three times, and one of the directors was ready to give up on rehearsals altogether. Yet that night at Cromer’s house there was none of the serious tension that often drives the precious few days before opening night.

Rehearsal was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but it started more toward 8. As students straggled in, they ate chili, knitted and joked around a table while waiting for the others to arrive. Once everyone was gathered in the basement, they played a few warm-up games of “Dance Dance Revolution,” an interactive video game.

Out of the two and a half hours at the house, not more than 45 minutes was spent on rehearsing. The run-through was patchy, with heavy corralling and line reading coming from the galley. And yet the students seemed nonplussed, completely at ease, and happy about the project at hand. If lines were forgotten, they made them up, and they were funnier than the words on the page.
The young people’s energy and comfort with each other made it seem like the show would come off just fine and that their confidence would pull them through. The way they interacted indicated that the show was not the important thing.
This year 44 students are participating in the one acts, many of whom have never been involved in theater before. They joined because of the fun, many said, and because there is a need for not only actors and crew members, but also writers, directors and leaders who can excite their peers to create an entertaining evening limited only by their resources and talents.

The students recognized that having all that freedom mea ns they are totally responsible for the production’s outcome. Nathanya Dallas, who has participated in local theater for many years, is co-writing and directing for the first time this year. She noticed that when she participates in the regular theater season she is responsible mostly for her own lines and her own schedule.

“I’m responsible for myself, and it’s easy,” she said. “Being responsible for a group is a lot more stressful.”

Not that she had any worries about her piece coming together. Scheduling her actors and getting them to come for rehearsals, considering the three other plays, the sports and jobs they’re also involved with, has been difficult.
“But once it starts and we’re all here together, it will be fun,” Dallas said.
The plays leave room for experimentation and personal risk. Lila Jensen wasn’t going to write a play because she had never written one before and wasn’t sure how her story should progress. But after encouragement from friends, she took up pen and paper and used several personal stories to write a play, “The Big Late,” about people finding their true happiness.

“Mac Attack,” by Dallas and Amy Price, was written as a humorous tribute to retired teacher Mary McDonald and the good times students had in her advanced placement English class. Dallas said she worried about how funny others would find the play and was especially apprehensive during the first trial performance. But people laughed. “They got it,” she said.

There is also the challenge of transforming an image in the mind to a working piece on stage, Jensen said. She said that she saw clearly when she was writing how certain parts would work, but those parts became fuzzy when she tried to stage them.

For all the logistical and professional challenges students may run into, local resident Sandy Crews, who teaches theater at Wright State University, has been available to help. But she said that she has been impressed with the students’ expertise and self-reliance and has hardly been called on at all for advice.
Students find that because they’re working with people they know well, they can take risks more easily and have confidence in each other that things will work out.

“It’s easier to share something creative with someone you know because you know what their reaction is going to be and if they’re going to judge you,” Dallas said.

Many of the actors said the directors gave their peers the latitude to “do their own thing,” said Kyle Truitt, who is in “Townies,” by Kristin Wiles and Erin Silvert-Noftle, and “Under the Sea in Japan,” by Austin Willis and Kevin Carr. Truitt said he joined because he wanted to try something new but didn’t want to be in a large production, and because he wanted to do something fun with his friends.
The student-directors’ previous experiences also help inform the relatively sophisticated process of putting on a production. James Hyde, who is directing “Revolution II,” said that he found he had a much clearer idea how he wanted his show to look this year as opposed to last, making the process less confusing for everyone.

Very few have seen their peers’ pieces, and they were all excited before the first dress rehearsals to find out what others were brewing. But regardless of the results on performance day, it was clear at Cromer’s house that the creative process was pushing leadership and responsibility as well as drawing students together to express themselves in a safe atmosphere.

When rehearsal was over on Sunday the students straggled out just as they’d come. They chatted, joked and played a few more rounds of video games before leaving, having shared a creative evening they alone owned.

The YSHS One Acts will be performed Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13 and 14, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 15, at 2 p.m., in the Antioch Experimental Theater.

—Lauren Heaton