Photo by Reilly Moreland
Senior Alana Rowan’s frequent Friday called “Just a Stage He’s Going Through” was preformed on Feb. 11. Frequent Fridays are one act plays directed by seniors in the Advanced Rep. theatre class and preformed in the Little Theatre.
Ethan Nickolett (9): Cast- Dwight
Q: What is the audition process for a frequent Friday like?
A: Usually, you just go in and all the directors, usually have you do different things. Some will have you read for all the different parts and some will even play fun little games with you to see your acting ability. But it’s really up to the directors how they want to do it.
Q: How many frequent Fridays have you personally been in?
A: This last one was my fourth.
Q: Can you briefly summarize the plot of “Just a Stage He’s Going Through”?
A: It’s about a man named Dwight who wakes up one day and he sees this audience (it’s sort of like The Truman Show). He becomes aware [that] everything around him is not going the way things are supposed to. Then he becomes aware that he’s in a play slowly understands what is going on in his life.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about your role?
A: I played the lead character, Dwight, who came off as kind of a crazy person to everybody else. He has been seeing things and he’s trying to explain his view of the world to everybody else who is oblivious to everything that is going on around them.
Q: What did you enjoy about your role?
A: I haven’t really played a role like this — where I’ve gotten to act out sort of like a crazy person who nobody believes in, and he sort of has to do everything all on his own. He’s figuring out his own way emotionally. I also really loved working with the cast and the director. They were really helpful in figuring out how this character was going to be.
Q: What didn’t you like about your role?
A: Well, it was like the same thing. At the beginning, I had no experience, no clue how to play this sort of character. I don’t really think [this type of character] has been done [very often] before and definitely not in any frequent Friday that I’ve seen. So I’ve had to take off of my directors and the cast and try to forge this new character that hasn’t really done in a frequent Friday before.
Q: Did you have any non frequent Friday acting experience before this?
A: Not much, I was in productions at Indian Hills. But other than that, I haven’t really done a whole lot with theatre.
Q: What was your favorite scene in the show?
A: Probably all scenes where me and Cameron Shoeck, who played Sigmund Freud, were on the couch just talking to each other. Sort of the whole therapist deal. That was really fun to do.
Q: Have you ever been in a main stage play at East?
A: I have not. But I’ve worked on some behind the scenes. I’ve worked on the crew for Little Mermaid. So that was a fun time, getting to understand how everything went on.
Q: How are the logistics and preparation of a frequent Friday different from that of a musical or main stage play?
A: Well a musical is certainly much larger, where you have to learn more numbers and songs rather than lines. This has also been different from many frequent Fridays that I’ve been in. This is definitely the most lines I’ve had in frequent Friday, so far. So just line memorization is a lot bigger in [plays] rather than musicals. Because in musicals you have so many other people that you can rely on with songs and help you out. But with a lot of these shows, you mess up and there’s not much you can really do.
Q: So how did you prepare for this show?
A: Oh, it’s really just going over things in your head over and over. We had bunch of rehearsals throughout, I think three weeks was all we had to learn blocking and everybody’s lines. It was pretty slow moving at first, but once it picked up it really got going and we got much better at the characters we were doing. I feel like it made the show a lot better.
Q: What was it like spending so much time with the same small cast?
A: Most of the people in the cast I hadn’t really known beforehand, so you really get close to new people that you haven’t met before. You go hang out with all of them after school. It’s more of a bonding experience than anything else, the frequent Fridays. You get to meet a lot of new faces. It’s really fun, just getting to know people that you haven’t met before.
Q: What did you like and dislike about this frequent Friday overall?
A: I thought that the idea for the frequent Friday was really great. Something I didn’t like about the frequent Friday was that rehearsal started off very slow. But they did pick up and I feel like we got to where we wanted to go at the end. But yeah, it started off slower than anything I had previously done. But I felt like it really worked out in the long run.
Q: What do you mean by it started off slow?
A: Just rehearsals were not as long and we took things with very small steps — which really worked out and we were able to get those scenes as crisp as we could in the long run.
Q: How did the snow days affect the frequent Friday?
A: Oh yeah, we were going to have it last Friday. We had to move over the weekend. We went to our director Alana’s house for two hour Thursday rehearsal and Friday rehearsal. I thought that at one point Alana was going to have a nervous breakdown when it was canceled on Friday. Everybody was freaking out. But I feel like it worked out overall. It was definitely a different experience moving the date to a different time.
Q: Do you think that also affected the attendance?
A: Yeah, definitely. I feel like, especially on a Friday, less people have things to do then on a Monday afternoon. So I feel like it definitely was a smaller turnout than it would have been and of course scheduling [was affected too]. People got confused on the day and all that jazz.
Essy Pierce (9): Crew- Curtains
Q: Can you explain what a frequent Friday is for those who don’t know?
A: If you take a drama class all four years of high school, when you’re a senior and you’re in advanced rep you get to [put on] a frequent Friday. It’s a student directed one act play. You can write it if you want or you can find one [to put on]. You cast it, find all the costumes, block it and direct it. Then people get to come and watch.
Q: How many crew members do frequent Fridays normally have?
A: It depends on how much they need, so like this one I think had 2 people just doing lights and curtain. But I remember Lindsay Goodman’s had quite a few people changing the set around. So it’s really just whatever they need, it varies.
Q: So why did this one have such a small one?
A: This one [had] a small amount of tech because it doesn’t really change places that much, it takes place in one room kinda. Then they also had the bus stop, which you can get that from just closing the curtain. You don’t really need to change the scene.
Q: How did you end up as a crew member for this?
A: Well, I really wanted to audition for the show. Alana is my friend. I read the script and I thought it was really funny. But then I wasn’t able to, because of the musical, so I asked her if I could still be a part of the show and she said I could do curtain for it.
Q: Have you done crew for any other frequent Fridays?
A: Not for frequent Fridays, this was my first time. But yeah, I did run crew with musical.
Q: After this experience, would you do crew again?
A: Yeah, for sure! It was really fun.
Q: What were your responsibilities as curtain?
A: Just kind of like ‘be on time’ because I’m in charge of changing the scene. So if I was off time, then the actors would get messed up.
Q: Did you face any challenges?
A: Not really. I would just listen to what they were saying because I had a cue line. Sometimes I would mess up my cue line and open it too early, but not really other than that.
Q: How did you prepare for the frequent Friday?
A: Well, Alana gave me a script and said like, ‘Open it when she says this’ and then I just went to some rehearsals to practice.
Q: Did you have to go to as many as the rest of the cast?
A: No, I only went to the last week of rehearsals, kind of show week rehearsals.
Q: What was it like spending so much time with the same small cast?
A: I’ve been in a few frequent Fridays, as an actor, and I really like the small cast aspect because it really helps you bond with a certain group of people. I think a small group is this good to bond with.
Q: What did you like and dislike about this frequent Friday overall?
A: My first my first rehearsal with them, I had no idea what the show was about. It was just really confusing for some reason. Then Essy explained what it was supposed to be about and I was kind of like, ‘Oh yeah, that makes more sense’.
Annie Elmore (10): Audience
Q: How many frequent Fridays have you been to been to?
A: Hmm, that’s a hard one. I went to them last year and I stopped going to them about halfway through the year and then I started going back to them again. I think I’ve been to almost everyone.
Q: Why do you keep coming back?
A: I love seeing what people create and I love seeing the director’s vision because everybody’s play is different. Everybody’s little short 30 minute play is not going to be the same. It’s very interesting to see what their take on directing is and how the actors move. It’s always nice to see your friends perform too.
Q: Did you know anyone in this one?
A: I did. I do house crew with a few of the people who [were] in the show.
Q: So did you come specifically to support anybody?
A: Actually, I did not know that Cameron was in it until I think today and I didn’t know Henry was in it either so it was great to see them.
Q: Now I’m going to ask you about some different aspects of the show and have you review them. So, acting and directing wise did you think that the actors and actresses were believable?
A: Yeah, I would say so. I think there was a little bit of that monotone kind of thing where you can tell they’re saying lines. But I also think that was the point of the show, to be like ‘We’re in a play guys.’ I think that because I know A: can be very realistic when he acts, but I think he was probably trying make it more sound like he was saying lines. I thought the directing was very interesting too. I thought it was great.
Q: Could you hear them the whole time?
A: I could. There were a few moments where one of the characters had a very, very thick German accent. So it was a little bit hard to understand him sometimes, but that’s a little bit understandable when instead of saying ‘s’ you’re saying ‘z’.
Q: Were the performers engaging and interesting to watch?
A: Yeah, I thought that they really were. I really liked Sigmund Freud a lot. I thought it was very interesting [when he acted] with the sock puppet and I liked the saxophone player. They were both very funny.
Q: How would you rate the acting/directing of the frequent Friday on a scale of five stars (with one being the worst and five being the best)?
A: I’d give it like a 4, 4.5 probably. I thought it was pretty good.
Q: So now I have a few questions about the design elements of the show. How did the directors and crew establish the mood of the show?
A: I think that was very well established because it was very, very minimalistic. There was maybe 2 set pieces on the stage and no quick costume changes. Not a whole lot of running around and insane intensity. I thought it was very fitting for what the show was about. I think that the director did a great job with that.
Q: Did the blocking of the show make sense to you?
A: Yeah there was one point [the part where Dwight went into the ‘living room’] where he was like, ‘I’m in the living room’ and I was like, ‘You’re not in the living room’. Then, they kind of established in the next sentence [that he was in the living room] with the lighting. I thought that the blocking did make sense, again for the tone of the show.
Q: How would you describe the tone of the show?
A: The character the main character didn’t know [that he was in] a play in the beginning. But he knew that there was an audience watching him, but at the same time nobody else in the show knew. So I think for that, the narrative more so made made the blocking and directing and everything make sense.
Q: How would you rate the design elements on a scale of 5 stars?
A: Probably again like a 4.5 because it was very simplistic, but it was right on the dots.
Q: So now, a few overall questions. What did you enjoy about the show?
A: I thought it was very interesting. I thought that this whole story made you question, made you wonder because you never really knew what was going to happen next. I couldn’t have really told you what was going to happen next while I was watching the show. I thought that the acting was pretty great too.
Q: What did you not enjoy about the show as much?
A: It was a little dark in the air in the room, lighting wise. Maybe that’s just because we were sitting in the dark. But it felt very simplistic, which makes sense for the show. That was just something that really stood out to me.
Q: Would you recommend it to potential audience members?
A: Yes I would definitely.
Q: How would you rate it as a whole on a scale of five stars?
A: I would probably give it a 4.5.