As a part of the Play Direction course offered by Bluffton, students are given the opportunity to take on a role commonly held by course instructor Melissa Friesen by directing their own short plays.
The 10-minute play festival, held April 19 and 20 in Ramseyer Auditorium, consists of four plays each directed by students in the Play Direction class. The four plays in this festival are Communication Gap written by Bill Cissna, Stairway to Heaven written by Gregory Fletcher, After, written by Carol K. Mack and Inside the Department of the Exterior written by Philip Hall.
In Communication Gap, directed by junior writing major Abby Bush, James and Katherine, played by Blayden McCoy and Jenna Juarez respectively, are seen in a cafe but Katherine goes about communicating with James. Katherine is seen recording the encounter between the two. James’ confusion, along with Katherine’s confusion in the latter portion contribute to a conversation with no distinct outcome. “Balancing the directing and acting didn’t turn out to be too difficult for me. I am fairly experienced in the acting department but directing was completely new to me and I am not an extroverted person. I definitely needed a significant amount of caffeine beforehand,” said Bush. Stairway to Heaven, directed by senior communication and media major Travon Mason, depicts Gil and Elisa, played by Carter Ritchey and Merideth Meyers respectively, a brother and sister bickering and talking about their recently departed father. The duo talks through this difficult time through heated discussion which ultimately results in their reconciliation and understanding of their situation.
“The experience was amazing. The two actors I had were perfectly fit for their roles. With rehearsing, we were able to get around some scheduling issues but we were able to enhance the emotions that I was trying to produce,” said Mason.
After, directed by first-year writing major Jordyn Garmatter, tells the story of a young bachelorette, Cindy, played by Jenna Juarez, who has her doubts about going through with her marriage. During these doubts, she meets “ex-fairy” Glynda, played by director Jordyn Garmatter. Glynda works her fairy magic to help Cindy go through with her marriage and to reach out and find her happily ever after.
“It was very difficult to rehearse with me being one of the actors but also having to give directions,” said Garmatter.
Inside the Department of the Exterior, directed by sophomore worship arts major Dane Chiles, depicts Peter Bahrkowski, played by Travon Mason attempting to purchase a new mailbox, or postal depository receptacle, but is met with challenges along the way with the clerk, played by Abby Bush. After many misspellings and unclear understandings, Mr. Bahrkowski and the clerk finally come up with a conclusion to the issue at hand.
“I really enjoyed this experience. I did a lot of theater and acting in high school so I was used to being an actor but being a director in this was very fun. At first it was a little difficult to get everyone’s schedules figured out but we were able to figure that out. I liked the two actors I selected and the three of us really worked well together.,” said Chiles.
Melissa Friesen, Mary Nord and Joseph Ignat endowed chair in theater, oversaw the production operations.
“The directors all embraced the challenge with a positive attitude,” said Friesen. “I think the best teacher is through experience and so having these directors being thrown into this for their project was a great experience for them. It was very liberating to see the work they’ve all done. It was a very proud moment for me.”
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