On Feb. 20 and 21, students from COM 412 held auditions in D-8 in the PAC for their final project: 10-minute plays.
Because COM 412 is a directing class, each student chose a script from an online source and will be directing their own play from start to finish.
“[In previous classes] they focused a little bit more on a one-act play, which is half of a full play, but it is written as a one-act so it does have a beginning middle and end.” Kristin Klonowski, adjunct communications professor, said. “With eight people in the class, I knew that was probably going to be nearly impossible.”
The genres of the plays range from romantic comedies to dramas, with all eight having a focus on relationships of some nature.
“The action just rises and concludes a lot faster, but you can get a lot done,” Christina Crooks, senior theatre major, said. “With 10 minutes, it doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but when you’re put on stage it’s actually quite more than you’d think.”
“If you think of, even something like Saturday Night Live skits, right, those are no longer than 10 minutes either, and they’re very well done and fun to watch,” Klonowski said.
Despite the short length of the plays, the time the students are putting into them is substantial.
“It’s a lot of analyzing your script, so you have to know, as a director, everything about it,” Crooks said. “You want to know what you want your characters to be like. Obviously, the actors bring something in, but you have to have a base for your actors. You have to know what your setting [is], what props you want to use, what set you want to use, what costume, lighting, sound, music. Any question that an actor can throw at you about your play, you want to have an answer.”
The performances will be held April 20-22 starting at 7:30 p.m. in the W.D. Powell Theatre, and all are welcome to attend.
Photo by Laila Al-Hagal
