Hamilton’s annual Directors’ Showcase premieres on Dec. 4 and 5. The showcase will be split into two days: five performances on Dec. 4 and six on Dec. 5, presenting a variety of short, one-act plays directed by Hamilton students. This year’s production, and by extension the process leading up to it, will be unique because it displays a record eleven performances. To achieve such an unprecedented feat, members of the directing class and the ex- tended Hamilton community have been working tirelessly to memorize, block, and in one case, choreograph, their respective shows.
Ultimately, while the actors are the ones who will be under the gaze of the audience, essentially every movement, sound, and artistic choice the audience sees is part of the director’s guidance. As a result, the director is the adhesive of the production and their choices make or break a show.
This is not to say that the Directors’ Showcase blindly thrusts unprepared Hamilton students into the directing process with no training. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. All semester, the eleven students in the directing class have been arduously preparing for auditions, callbacks, rehearsals, character work, blocking, and run-throughs with a variety of different creative exercises. As a result, students from the Directing class have been prepared with the requisite skills to run rehearsals and tech, and put on a show.
Though students have been through simulated challenges they would face while directing their own piece, there is no substitute for the real thing. With rehearsals happening pretty much non- stop in the week leading up to the show, directors are finding new joys and challenges in their respective creative and artistic process. Steph Kall ’19, a member of the Directing class, spoke to how class prepared her for the directing process, saying, “Directors’ Showcase is a great opportunity to apply the concepts that we have learned throughout the semester to an actual show. Working with actors and put- ting together a full show is both terrifying and exciting, and I think that it’s a really great experience for us, as young directors, to have. We get to create our own vision and make our own mistakes, and I think that’s what directing is all about.”
When asked about his process, Zach Oscar ’18 noted, “It has been really interesting to interact with the theater-making process as a director rather than as an actor. Even though I am only a few days into directing my actors, I have already felt the need to find different ways to convey my ideas and thoughts to my actors without saying ‘do X’ specifically. I hope that I end up feeling as though I did not do too much to control my actors and at the same time gave them enough to work with creatively. Overall, I believe that learning to work well with people who are seeking your direction is a great lesson in how to strike a solid balance between your vision and the actors’ creativity.”
Similarly, Sarah Zeiberg ’18 spoke to the joy of partaking in a storied departmental tradition and the opportunity the showcase provides for students to own their creativity, stating, “Directors’ Showcase is one of my favorite traditions of the theatre department. I feel that it is an excellent outlet for students to take ownership of their work and emphasize what excites them about theatre. In my experience, it’s a fun and hectic few weeks that challenges us as student artists to collaborate and make our ideas realities. I hope that everyone involved, from directors to audience members, sees the process as a showcase of the diverse approaches to theatre and can enjoy each original take on our assigned scripts.”
Given the fact that many students are finding this directing process a stimulating and rewarding challenge, and that the texts being performed range from comedies to drama to dance pieces, there is no question that the Hamilton community has a lot to look forward to.
Directors’ Showcase takes place Dec. 4, and 5th in the Barrett theatre and admission is free.
