Join Statesman theater from Feb. 18 to Feb. 19 as they showcase student-written and directed plays. Before the annual event, Rank&File spoke with each of the writers and directors.
Carried to Shore
After writing all summer, sophomore Ava Kranser said she’s excited to see her one-act, “Carried to Shore,” come together on stage.
Krasner said the play follows Jason, a teenager, who must come to terms with sharing his home life with friends and getting help when needed.
“My inspiration was mostly the character itself,” Krasner said. “When I found Jason’s personality, I could find his life and the contrast between home life and school life, which drives the play.”
Krasner said that creating a one-act has many steps.
“To make a one-act, you have to start with a script, then get it accepted, then hold the audition process and cast,” Krasner said. “After, your actors do lots of run-throughs, and you stage and block how you want it to look.”
“Carried to Shore” director, sophomore Addi Reeves, performed at the festival last year and said she is excited to play a different role in the process.
“I’ve always wanted to direct, so this has been an awesome chance for me to create with my friends,” Reeves said. “I can’t wait for them to perform and show the work we’ve done.”
Reeves said being behind the scenes has been an enjoyable experience. Krasner agreed.
“Last year, I didn’t have a One-Act, so this year I get to experience more tech elements of theater,” Krasner said.
To motivate her cast, Reeves said she uses special group exercises.
“To get everyone hyped, we love doing fun team-building challenges like [the] ‘human knot,’” Reeves said. “It’s also super awesome when we’re rehearsing and things start to click, that definitely gets us excited to perform.”
Reeves said she wants audiences to know the validity of their emotions.
“[You] don’t need to pretend to be okay and make light of everything because everyone has completely valid emotions,” Reeves said. “There will always be people who want to help you through tough times.”
Krasner agreed, also hoping the overall message will resonate with audiences.
“I want the audience to take with them that they’re never alone in the harder times of their life,” Krasner said. “Everyone is going through difficult things, even if it doesn’t seem like it.
Love, Lucy
Senior writer Han Nguyen’s one-act, titled “Love Lucy,” follows Lucy, a 17-year-old girl, as she navigates her senior year of high school.
Nguyen said Lucy also follows the core idea of Peter Pan: never growing up.
“When an anonymous message about ‘wanting to stay a kid forever’ comes for her and her best friend Jamie during their podcast, she goes to all lengths to find out who wrote it,” she said.
Nguyen was inspired by “The Unsent Project”, where anonymous individuals can write notes to strangers.
“There’s this website called The Unsent Project where you can write anonymous messages to anybody you want, and I kept thinking, ‘woah,’” Nguyen said. “[I] searched up my name a bunch of times, and that’s kind of where my idea branched off from.”
Inspired to write the play based on her life, Nguyen grapples with the emotions that come with growing up.
“Being a senior in high school and the anxiety of figuring out your life, sometimes you wish you could just stay a kid forever,” Nguyen said. “So I just mind-melded the two, and here we are.”
“Love, Lucy’s” director, senior Sara Moharerrzadeh, said she’s excited to see her and Nguyen’s vision come to life.
“The cast, crew, and production team have put so much hard work and effort into this,” Moharerrzadeh said. “I’m excited for audiences to see it.”
Noting the differences from last year, Moharerrzadeh said that this year the theater department separated the roles of writers and directors to be more realistic to the industry.
“Creating separate roles for playwrights and directors allows each to bring their creativity and vision for the play to the stage while still reaching a common goal,” she said.
The playwrights choose a director for their play who share their passion and love for each work.
“The playwright selects their director to carry [out] their creative intentions and collaborate with on the creative and rehearsal process,” Moharerrzadeh said. “[This is done to] bring the playwright’s words on stage.”
After writing the play “It Doesn’t End In Nebraska” last year, Nguyen’s creative process has looked different this year.
“Last year, I wrote my play ‘It Doesn’t End In Nebraska’ based on my life, and though ‘Love, Lucy’ relates to me, I mostly wrote it as a love letter to the class of 2025,” she said. “I know college and growing up can be scary, so this play is a little less self-indulgent and less based on a true story, more of a feeling.”
A Very _____ Murder
After being inspired by the show “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”, co-writers senior Eliott Boon and senior Pressley Stevens created their one-act, “A Very _____ Murder.”
“My inspiration was the scene in ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ where the suspects line up and sing ‘I Want It That Way,’” Boon said.
Boon said the play follows both an experienced and rookie detective as they try to solve a murder while interrogating suspects. He urges audiences to learn lessons about judgment through the piece.
“From ‘A Very _____ Murder,’ I want the audience to get the message on the importance of not judging a book from its cover because ideas can come from unexpected places,” Boon said.
Stevens, also the one-acts stage manager, hopes audiences obtain a slightly different message.
“Sometimes being silly gets the job done,” she said. “I absolutely do not endorse murdering people, however, not everything has to be so serious like society makes it out to be. If you live your life the way you want, ultimately, you’ll end up happier.”
Stevens said she is excited to see the play hit the big stage.
“[We] wrote this play last year,” she said. “It’s been amazing watching the words on paper turn into actions on the stage.”
She noted the challenges they have faced, including numerous snow days.
“This year is a little different because all the snow days that happened in the first week back from winter break threw our scheduling off and caused a little bit of chaos,” she said. “We’ve made it work.”
Teamwork is something that Stevens emphasizes in order to create a successful one-act. .
“Running the one-acts cannot be successful without a lot of teamwork from all the different departments,” she said. “Lots of people end up being able to work on crews they never would have previously.”
This one-acts’ director, senior Ella Greher, said directing this play differs from past experiences.
“Last year, I both wrote and directed my one-act, ‘Working Title,’” she said. “This year, the play I’m directing is not the one that I wrote.”
Greher asks for her cast’s opinion during the directing process when making decisions.
“I may be the director, but my job is not simply giving them directions, it’s also asking for their opinions for how a scene should be done [and] what they think their character might do,” she said.
Through the input from her cast, Greher hopes each participant will become more engaged and excited about the play.
“I consider their suggestions very seriously because I believe the best work comes out of collaboration,” she said
Second Time’s the Charm
After writing from July to August, senior Ella Greher submitted her one-act called “Second Time’s the Charm.” Greher explained the premise of it.
“[It] is about two friends who set their single parents up with each other,” she said.
Greher was inspired to write the play based on her own experiences with divorce.
“Honestly, watching my own parents date other people after their divorce [inspired me]” she said. “Now, ‘Second Time’s the Charm’ is not a direct representation [of my experience], but it gets pretty close.”
After writing “Working Title” for last year’s festival, Greher is both a writer and director this year. With similar new experiences, “Second Time’s the Charm” director senior Eliott Boon is directing for the first time.
“The biggest difference for me is that I’m directing, something I’ve never done before,” Boon said. “It definitely took a few rehearsals to get into a groove about rehearsing scenes and taking notes and balancing the performing and technical aspects.”
Boon said creating a calm environment in rehearsal is a key part of directing a one-act to keep everyone involved and excited about the play.
“I try to create a chill and relaxing environment in rehearsals, so it is enjoyable for the cast,” he said. “We advertise the one-acts to get people in the school excited to come see it.”
Boon explained his favorite tradition of the one-acts.
“The games we play in the ‘green room’ right before a performance to get everyone’s energy up and ready for the show [are my favorite],” he said.
Greher agrees, saying she also enjoys the community between the actors, writers, and directors.
“I love sitting with the other writers and directors as we watch our creations be performed,” she said. “We are there to support each other, to calm each other’s nerves, and to congratulate one another. It really is such a nice moment of community.”
She hopes audiences walk away from the theater knowing they can love after loss and how to support someone else’s life.
“I want audiences to get the message that you can love after loss or heartbreak, cheesy, I know,” she said. “Also, you need to let the people you care about navigate the ups and downs of love for themselves, even if you are scared they’ll get hurt again or find it hard to watch.”