The students of Assistant Professor Daniel E. Kramer’s Directing I class are set to debut as directors. Choosing from a wide variety of material, Smith students will stage one act plays in Hallie Flanagan Studio. Over 25 student actors are part of the 11 plays, which will not exceed 10 minutes.

“The goal is for students to take the skills they have been building in the class, and apply them to a complete, though short, play. They have been directing scenes prior to this in class, so it is an opportunity to tell a complete story,” Kramer said.

Kramer holds an M.F.A. in directing from Yale School of Drama and a B.A. from Haverford College, and is a member of the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) and the Dramatists Guild.  He received a 2007 Elliot Norton Award in 2007 for Outstanding Production for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Boston Theatre Works. In 2008, his production of The Pillowman at the Contemporary American Theatre Company received awards for Best Production and Best Direction.

The purpose of the class is to instill the true essence of being a director in each student. The students started by directing short scenes among themselves. They proceeded to stage scenes with other actors and finally directed a complete 10-minute play at the end of the semester. The process of directing plays involves selecting a play, holding auditions and searching for actors, then coordinating a minimum of eight hours of rehearsal. On the day of the performance, plays go through a whole day of ‘tech’ rehearsal, where lighting, sound cues, props and costumes are all incorporated.    

Emma Colangelo ’14, one of the student directors in the class, is directing a courtroom comedy drama that consists of a culprit, the defense and the prosecution, all of whom Colangelo decided to make women. Colangelo started her directing process by asking each actor: “What do you want her – your co-actor – to do in this scene for you? In other words, what is your objective as an actor?”

She also played some theatrical games, so that the actors could get to know each other better. “I chose this play because I wanted to try directing a comedy, and when I read it for the first time, I was in hysterics.  It is really interesting to learn about directing from the perspective of an actor,” said Colangelo.

According to Kramer, the process of holding unbiased auditions and staging a complete play can be daunting for students.

“Most of all, the directors are looking for a play they’re excited about, a story they want to tell,” said Kramer. “In choosing actors for their projects, I ask them to focus not on ideas of what a character is ‘like’ and whether the actors they see share those traits, but rather on what a character has to do in the play, and whether they feel the actor can do those things convincingly and engagingly. The hope is not to get stuck on ‘type’.”

Plays by Directing I students will debut April 29 at 7 p.m. in Hallie Flanagan Studio in the Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts. Admission is free. The 10-minute plays are part of a classroom presentation and not part of any main stage production by the Theater Department.