Senior theater majors direct one-acts

By Denise Doerschel

In its second year at Santa Clara, the One-Act Festival allows students to demonstrate their remarkable directing abilities. The four individual plays are each written by seniors and combined into one evening of spectacular theater.

Each play has a unique reflection of its director through their choice of subject matter, tone and interpretation. Though they all agree that scheduling and time were the most difficult issues to cope with, they each had different experiences bringing the aspects of their creation together.

Senior Alexander Houck directs "One Beer Too Many." He enjoyed working with the new freshmen and believes they helped him by reflecting the young age of the characters.

"Having other people read and act out the script for me gave me new interpretations that I really enjoyed," he said. "Patience is a virtue when it comes to putting together people's schedules and trying to fit in time for a rehearsal."

Houck believes all the hard work pays off when he hears the actors compliment each other on a job well done.

"I enjoy watching the actors transform into their characters right before my eyes," he said. "It is a beautiful thing to see."

Houck chose a play that his father had written as a monologue in 1987. While looking for potential scripts for the play, he stumbled across the monologue and reread it. This sparked new ideas for transforming the play, and so the two worked at developing the characters into what they now are.

"It was a wonderful time for us to work on an artistic project together," Houck comments.

Senior Julie Preslar's play, "The Most Massive Woman," probes many emotional and complex matters, yet is comedic as well. The experience has been especially pleasant for Preslar, who explains that her cast and stage manager brought many creative ideas to the stage.

"This show would not be what it is without their personal contributions to the overall vision of the play," Preslar explains, "Half the time I felt like I wasn't doing any work, because their interpretation of the line or the character was right on."

Preslar considers the meaning of the play the most significant and rewarding aspect. It gives her pride and strength to know the message of the play and how many people are affected.

"The most rewarding thing is watching and seeing how beautiful the girls are, and seeing that beauty transferred to a character," she said

"The Most Massive Woman" is set in the waiting room of a liposuction clinic.

"The play explores how the media, society's strict beauty standards, and personal relationships contribute to eating disorders, negative body-image and a confused sense-of-self," Preslar said.

She believes this subject matter is often overlooked. Though these disorders are prevalent, Preslar feels they are hidden "on a prestigious and competitive college campus and in a profession where a person's physicality is often on display."

Senior Josi Kennon directs the play, "Dutchman." She found that the most difficult aspect of directing the play was transposing her vision to the stage in an exact replication.

"It is hard to accept that some of the fantastic ideas you came up with for the show just won't work out," she explains. Despite this, she feels the most rewarding aspect of directing is seeing her cherished work come to life.

She chose to direct "Dutchman" because she felt it had a powerful message.

"I also like the challenge of doing such a controversial show. The play comments on the oppressing role society played towards African Americans, especially African American males," she said.

Senior Elizabeth Theis directs another play of the festival, "WASP." She explains that directing the play has been full of ups and downs.

"Overall, it has been a lot of fun - a huge learning experience - and I have had amazing support from all sides of the theater department, from my family and friends, and from my cast and crew."

She chose "WASP" because Steve Martin wrote it, and thus it intrigued her. "WASP" is an exploration of the realities of a typical '50s middle-class white Protestant family.

"I really enjoy plays that can hit you with both absurd humor and poignant moments of truth," Theis said.

With all the work put into directing her play, Theis says, "The most rewarding thing for me in directing has always been watching actors grow in their parts and participating in the process of creating a performance from a script."

Supervising the students is Barbara Fraser, the head of the directing program at Santa Clara. Her role in the festival is to meet weekly with the students to discuss various facets of their plays. She feels the students are coming along well and will present a nice variety at the festival.

The One-Act Festival opens this Saturday, Oct. 27 with "WASP" at 4 p.m., "Dutchman" at 5:15 p.m., "The Most Massive Woman" at 7 p.m. and "One Beer Too Many" at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are $5 each for students. Get your tickets soon; last year it was all sold out.