Audience members may just see themselves in some of the characters on stage in the 2016 Winter One Acts play festival.
In fact, they probably will.
After sorting through nearly 50 submitted plays, Bainbridge High School theater director Karen Polinsky and the rest of the deciding teacher/student committee narrowed the show down to seven.
And, very quickly, a pattern emerged in the issues and topics addressed in the favorite stories. Hence, this year’s theme: “Island Family Portrait.”
The Winter One Acts play festival annually calls for original BHS student plays — some written as part of a drama or English class, many created just for the occasion — and produces a select few in a 100 percent student-run show: student cast, crew and even musical entertainment between plays.
Between those on and those behind the stage, as well as the students who helped choose the pieces, Polinsky said about 70 students were hard at work on the production.
“I keep throwing the decisions back on them,” she said of the students. “I’ll say things like, ‘Face the audience,’ or, ‘Project,’ but, other than that, I’m trying to stay out of the direction.”
Giving the students so much say in the content and style of the plays, she added, allows a much truer sense of the priorities and concerns of the teenage creators.
“We let the theme emerge after we choose the plays,” Polinsky explained. “We give it a theme every year based on what we see, but we try to choose what we think are the best plays. Although, we do try to get a variety between serious plays and comedy. That’s probably the only criteria other than, ‘Is it a good play?’”
A lot of the favorite plays this year examined island life, Polinsky said, though often in exaggerated, satirical or metaphorical ways.
Some stories, however, tackled specific contemporary topics more obviously.
“They seem to be more self-reflective this year,” Polinsky said. “Also, this year, we have one play which looks at a gay relationship between girls and really looks at the awkwardness and the beauty of that and that’s the whole focus of the play. And then, we have another play where a girl expresses a crush to another girl but it’s incidental; it’s not the central idea of the play.
“That hadn’t been done so much in the past,” she added. “I think the plays this year, they all make sense. All the plays are clearly about something and culminate with what they’re about. They’re a little less avant-garde than some other years.”
The playwrights of this year’s pieces are Leil Harlan (“Three’s a Crowd”), Isabelle Haines and Anna Harmes (“Sincerely”), Mira Rosenkotz (“Write Me A Letter”), Sam Warkentin (“The Ride”), Henry Bacon (“A Western”), Brendan Bennet (“Mailakat”) and Alex Costin and Madison Loalza-Brotherton (“Yale”).
The directors are Emily Cohen, Maddy Garfunkel, Josie Davis, Alyssa Pazoff, Sean Palmer, Matthew Midget, Eliza Townsend, Teagan Howlett, Phoebe Liebling and Julia Fradkin.
The cast includes Emery Anderson, Julia Groves, Sean Palmer, Will Boynton, Sam Kappel, Lily Lucas, Cole Schardein, Caitie Mooney, Caitlyn Munter, Aaron Trapp, Annie Comstock, Fiona Shields, Sam Casad, Will Thompson, Dylan Moroch, Claire Alexander, Carter Daniels, Carly Lant, Mira Rosenkotz, Lucas Weyand, Ryder Wing, Jade Greer, Jackson Patrick, Anna Scott, Devon Turner and Lauren Wallach.
The Winter One Acts are very appealing to students because they are given so much freedom regarding the production and because it was a relatively short — though intensive — time commitment, according to BHS junior and first-time director Maddy Garfunkel.
“It’s been really fun and really rewarding,” Garfunkel said.
“At first I was kind of nervous because I didn’t really know what I was doing, but it’s been a very rewarding experience just seeing it go from the script and working with my writers to working with my cast members and seeing it on stage,” she said. “It’s a really cool process and I really like my play.”
Garfunkel will helm “Sincerely,” the piece with one of the larger casts in the show.
Between each play there will be a short student performance, either musical, spoken word or an improv piece.
This year’s selections take the stage at the BHS auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5 and Saturday, Feb. 6, and Thursday, Feb. 11 and Friday, Feb. 12.
Tickets, for sale at the door only, are $10 each ($8 for students).
A family affair
What: 2016 Winter One Act play festival.
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5 and Saturday, Feb. 6, and Thursday, Feb. 11 and Friday, Feb. 12.
Where: Bainbridge High School auditorium.
Admission: Tickets, for sale at the door, are $10 each ($8 for students).
