Every year, theater students create, produce, and perform their own plays as a summative project after they finish preparing for their annual class, known as the “Student Playwright Festival”. Through this project, students learn about the work and creative processes that go into producing a play and what it’s like to act as a director.
There are five different phases of the overall process that go into creating and producing the plays.
First, students plan their plays, which includes brainstorming and creating the plot of their plays. Second, students write their scripts. Third, students cast their fellow classmates into their play and begin directing them. Finally, students perform their finished plays.
Each play must be a comedy this year.
Second year theater student sophomore Jade Newhall’s play is about doctors performing a “surgery” on a patient that goes wrong, and it’s revealed to be the popular board game, “Operation” instead of a real surgery. She has casted sophomore Celeste Jenkins as the main doctor, freshman Summer Canter as nurse #1, sophomore Nattalie Stemmer as the nurse #2, and senior Khal Higgins as the patient’s spouse.
Newhall enjoys getting to exercise her creativity and freedom with this project.
“I like the project because I get the freedom to create the play I want to do. There’s nobody telling me I have to do this or that and I get freedom with it,” Newhall said.
Theater and studio art teacher Ms. Erin Allen lets theater students take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about productions and tap into their creativity, like Newhall does.
“I believe that students should know not only how to create theatre as performers but also how to write and direct their own plays for the stage,” Allen said. “Playwriting builds confidence within the students to create original content for the stage and to become comfortable directing actors.”
Allen does this project again and again each year because it allows students to let their creativity shine and take advantage of skills and talents they’ve learned throughout the school year.
“It is a celebration of the students’ full talents as writers, directors, and actors. Students get to see and hear their own words being performed as well as take part in the performances of their classmates,” Allen said. “I know there will be many laughs [when each play is performed]”
Seventh period English classes are able to view the plays in the auditorium April 21- April 30 with their entire class only, not as individual students.
