Student Producers, Directors Take the Stage In Benjamin Hall

3/6/2018

Upper School drama students captivated the audience in Benjamin Hall during an evening of student directed one act plays on March 2 and 3. The “Revolutions Festival” featured seven plays with student producers, directors and actors.

“The plays were written and developed in the Page to Stage class. The class is available as a Senior English elective. We also encourage other students to write plays as well. A group of us then read and discuss the plays and select them based on quality and theme,” said faculty supervisor Tom Bazar.

Bazar says the plays are completely student-run from start to finish, but he makes directorial and editorial suggestions along the way.

Bazar says he’s noticed the drama program grow during his time at Benjamin and has seen more play submissions this year.

“Last year we selected six plays, this year we selected seven. My favorite thing about the process is there is a noticeable difference in how the kids are invested in their own work and in original material,” says Bazar.

Etoile Gelman, director of the play “To Die, To Sleep,” says it was awkward at times directing a cast of her peers, but ultimately it was for the betterment of the final product.

Kailey Graziotto, who wrote and produced the play, says it was “strangely enough, not inspired by anything in my actual life.” Graziotto explains how the play underwent both a title, character and theme change throughout the editing process.

“In fact, nothing from the original script is even applicable to what was onstage. All that’s left are a few siblings trying to decode the blurred line between dreams and reality. It took six revisions to get there, but I couldn’t be more proud of how far we’ve come,” she says.

Plays:

Little Past Midnight by Natalie Sanders

Director-Kailey Graziotto

Asst. Director - Nicky Amato

Actors - Ben Smithy, Caroline Moody

Cordova by Nick Nielsen

Director - Gibby Capaldi

Asst. Director - Alexa McAvoy

Actors - Evan Chambers, Cameron Pirozzi, Nicky Amato

To Die, To Sleep by Kailey Graziotto

Director - Etoile Gelman

Asst. Director - Katie Hewitt

Actors - Chloe Habib, Hudson Hale, Grace Myers

White Raven by Hudson Hale

Director - Nicky Amato

Asst. Director - Scott Pignataro

Actors - Katie Hewitt, Matt Sproger, Isabel Samarias

Manners by Sydney Burnett

Director - Vinny Amato

Asst. Director - Caroline Moody

Actors - Victoria Porges, Molly Fried, Coco Yue

Complications by Zac Cotronakis

Director- Justin Stohlman

Asst. Director - Hudson Hale

Actors - Vinny Amato, Ben Smithy, Michael Yancey, Lutong Wang

Hoodwink by Martin Weisz

Director-Alexa McAvoy

Asst. Director - Elena Ippolito

Actors-Danai Makoni, Isaac Wiggins, Matt Sproger, Gibby Capaldi, Cameron Pirozzi

Back

Student Producers, Directors Take the Stage In Benjamin Hall

Main Address & Lower/Middle School

Upper School