Every April, MSU theatre students take over the McComas Hall Lab Theater with a showcase of one-act plays.
Each spring, the Communication Department offers a theatre directing course. The students attend lectures, select the plays to be performed, hold auditions, cast their shows, rehearse for several weeks and finally unveil their finished products during several evenings of performances at the end of the semester. The students’ final grades depend largely on the success or failure of the shows when they finally reach the eyes of an audience.
The student directors have spent the last three to four years learning the craft of theater in productions and in the classroom, in classes such as playwrighting, acting and costuming.
Jo Durst, who teaches the directing class, views the one-acts as a rite of passage for theater students.
“I tell my students,” Durst said, “that, after they have directed a one-act, they can do anything they set their mind and heart to.”
Brandon Morris, president of the Blackfriars Drama Society, who has roles in two plays at this year’s showcase, sees the one-acts as a great way to get new blood into the theatre department. “It’s just a fun, relaxed atmosphere for someone’s first experience on stage,” Morris said.
In the past, the one-acts have starred undergrads, grad students, highschoolers, professors and community members unaffiliated with MSU.
Thomas La Foe, a grad student and fulltime State employee, is actively involved with productions on and off campus, at downtown’s Starkville Community Theater. He once directed a one-act in the showcase, and now he stars in one directed by an actress from a previous MSU children’s production, which La Foe directed.
“I was once in her shoes,” La Foe said. “It’s fun to have the roles reversed and encouraging to see the younger theater students developing their talents and putting together shows for the first time.”
La Foe’s aforementioned director is Kristen James, a first-timer who says she’s enjoying “kind of making it up as I go.” James says directing has improved her perceptions of acting by giving her a new, more critical perspective on performance. She values her lecture time because it helps her work through obstacles that occur during rehearsals. “When I think I’ve hit a wall,” she said, “I know I can discuss it openly in class, and the problem will be solved.”
Graduate student James Comans looks forward to Wednesday night, when he gets to act in one show then sit in the audience for a play that he wrote, a comedy called “A Ride in the Handbasket.” “Until a play is performed,” Comans said, “even the playwright may not get the full meaning of what he’s written.”
The plays run Wednesday through Friday evenings in the Lab Theater at McComas Hall, with different performances on each night.
Wednesday night’s shows are “The King and the Condemned,”A Ride in the Handbasket” and “The Public Eye,” directed by Melanie Harris, Will Cooper and Mark Harris.
Thursday brings “Outta da Blues,” directed by Wanda Doss, “Hope and Mercy,” directed by LaWanda Swan and “Two Bottles of Relish,” directed by Melissa Sparks.
Friday, the final evening of performances, features “How Gertrude Stormed the Philosophers Club,” directed by Kristen James, “New Shoes,” directed by Dustin LeFors, “The Picture,” directed by Brian Allen and, lastly, “The Talking Cure,” directed by Ian Stoutenburgh.
The shows start at 7 p.m., and general admission is $5.