The student one-act plays are a much-anticipated performing arts event and are a venue for student directors and actors to showcase their talents in a broad array of plays and topics. This year there are three one-acts, completely directed, acted and tech-supported by students.
This is the second year that Henry Claudy (I) has directed a one act. This year he chose the play “Face Divided” by Edward Allan Baker. The drama takes place in a Providence emergency room, where a mother brings her injured young daughter, but questions arise about the injury when the father arrives. Henry says most of his Milton theater experiences focused on comedy, so he wanted to try something different.
“I love directing,” says Henry. “It gives you a lot of skills that can be applied to your life outside of theater. I love doing the auditions. It’s fun finding a scene for the actors and seeing how they choose to perform it. This play has some real challenging scenes, especially between the husband and wife.”
Alex Chen (II) is directing “English Made Simple” by David Ives. “I chose the play because it is a funny, short play about the little details of English conversation. A guy and a girl meet at a party and proceed to have a standard conversation. However, as the play progresses, the audience is made aware of their true history. Then there is a third character, who acts more like a teacher, teaching the audience about how English speech works and what generally meaningless small talk actually means. I love how the play starts out like an instructional video teaching viewers how to chat with others and ends up with a couple with a newfound love for each other.”
Dorsey Glew (II) is directing “Yesterday” by Colin Campbell Clements. “I chose it because it was written in the 1920s, so I could play with the time period and with this story, the actors and director can play with the characters’ many different nuances.”
The One Acts begins in the Studio Theatre on Thursday, February 23, and Friday, February 24 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, February 25 at 7 p.m.
