BHS theater students put on two evenings of one-acts.
Bainbridge High School sets the stage for a series of one-acts that double as a world tour.
Whisking audiences from Tennessee Williams’ deep South to Monty Python’s British Isles, and from Hans Christian Andersen’s 19th-century Denmark to Woody Allen’s ancient Greece, a half-dozen student directors create seven versions of reality behind the footlights.
Assembling the varied entertainment often makes rehearsals six times more intense, according to BHS teacher and theater director Bob McAllister.
“We’ve been here for days,” he said, pointing to an actor sacked out in a sleeping bag in a corner of the theater, “and we’ll be here every night until we open.”
After six years of presenting the one-acts, however, the drill is a familiar one.
What’s changed is the material submitted for review, which has shifted, over time, to favor themes that had McAllister sending the proposals back for a rewrite.
“The students directors submit a proposal and I ‘advise and consent,’” McAllister said. “This time I made them go back and I gave them another week. Because it was all insanity, chaos and bizarre humor.
“I like comedy, but we needed a balance.”
The final selections represent a cross-section of theatrical styles.
Woody Allen’s “The Republic” parodies the study of philosophy, as the reluctant Socrates waxes distinctly unphilosophical about drinking poison; Williams’ “Talk to Me Like the Rain” chronicles a disintegrating marriage, while David Ives’ “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread” applies Glass’ minimalist and serial composing style to word-play.
Raucous comedy is still represented, in entre’ acts chosen and directed by BHS junior Sophie Paterson. Paterson uses sketches from Monty Python, the group of British actors who composed the early 1970s BBC comedy, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” and from another British TV show, “Not the 9 O’Clock News.”
“My parents are English and so I’ve been brought up with that humor,” Paterson said. “I’d like to spread it around.”
Paterson came to appreciate British humor even more when she lived for three years in the small village of Molesworth in Cambridgeshire.
“It was really a village,” she said, “and there were definitely even thatched roofs.”
Paterson found that Pythonesque absurdity had roots in village life.
“English people are just more eccentric,” she said. “Every village has one weird person that everyone invites to their dinner parties and that they like, even if they wouldn’t take financial advice from them.
“But you can’t have people like that here, because everyone takes themselves far too seriously.”
Initially, when Paterson tried to bring some favorite British comedy to the BHS stage, her familiarity with the material – and her inexperience directing – were drawbacks.
“I thought since I was an actor I’d be able to communicate with my actors,” she said, “but I really had trouble articulating what I wanted.”
In addition to discovering that the skills an actor develops are not necessarily the ones a director needs, Paterson found that her fixed vision of what the work should be made it harder to translate that vision to words.
Only when she began to allow herself – and her actors – to interpret did the sketches come to life.
“You can’t translate from screen to stage necessarily,” she said. “I had to adapt (the sketches), and they were the better for it.”
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Bainbridge High School presents the sixth annual student-directed Winter One Act play festival, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6-7 in the BHS LGI room.
Student directors Alison Sterett, Skylar Wilkins, Sonia MacBride, Sophie Paterson, Phoebe Tyers and Brett Mendenhall direct short works by Tennessee Williams, Christopher Durang, Monty Python, Woody Allen and David Ives. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students. Information: 780-1653.
