By Abby Kass
This year’s student-directed play, Bad Auditions by Bad Actors, tells the story of a teacher who gets the opportunity to direct a play, but each person who auditions has their own quirks, which makes them unmanageable. The show took place Sunday, April 14th and Monday, April 15th. Junior Toby Steiner directed the play while junior Emily Schain was the technical director. The cast included Abby Nanus, Eliana Zemel, Michelle Korin, Leor Hoffman, Misha Shteingart, Dina Kohn, Noah Wanderman, and James Davey. Besides having a fascinating plot, this show has impacted everyone involved in its production.
Since the play is student-directed, actors in the play have been able to connect more with the directors and have a unique experience from what they normally have when it is teacher-directed. Sophomore Leor Hoffman, an actor in the play, values this and appreciates the lessons he has learned from it.
“I think that it [being directed by a student] feels much more equal,” Hoffman said. “It’s been a very positive experience. It’s a good learning moment for the director and the actors because, even though Toby [the director] will always listen to our ideas, it’s her show and we still have to listen to her vision, and it’s important to learn how to respect others’ ideas.”
Sophomore Michelle Korin, who played the teacher, agrees with Hoffman that being directed by a student has been a fantastic experience. She felt more comfortable expressing her thoughts and inquiries during the preparation process.
“Toby is so good at directing,” Korin said. “First of all, she’s very nice and it’s great working with her and it doesn’t feel like a task, it’s always a very fun time. She is very open to comments, so if anyone has any questions, she’ll answer them. And, I think that’s a major difference because sometimes, you get a little nervous about asking questions in front of a teacher. So, having the director be a student is refreshing.”
Junior Emily Schain, the stage manager and technical director of the production, also held a large role. She worked side-by-side with director Toby Steiner to design sets, organize props, and even reprogram the lights in the black-box theater. She has enjoyed these new responsibilities as, typically, she solely aids the director.
“Normally, being a stage manager, I work hand-in-hand with the director in letting their vision come true,” Schain said. “But, for this one, I thought it would be amazing to have the vision myself and make it come to life. So, that was something that really encouraged me to take on this position.”
Leadership roles have value in the way that they teach the individual who adopted the role vital life skills that can be applied to many areas of life. In Schain’s case, being a student technical director required her to learn many of these skills because she was balancing her workload while being the technical director.
“A big skill that I’ve taken out of this [experience] is time management and how important it is,” Schain said. “Another one is working with others because I worked closely with Toby, and we had to be in constant communication about whether we think something is good and is the right direction to go in. There is also leadership and learning how to lead others. Also delegating: allowing others to do tasks that I know I won’t be able to do.”
Steiner had a learning curve in the directing process not only because it was a new position with new obligations, but also because she is a student directing other students, and being on the same level as her cast had its benefits and difficulties.
“You have a different kind of connection with them [the cast],” Steiner said. “It was challenging because, on one hand, you want to hang out with them, but you also have to get stuff done. It was strange at first to find that balance between friends and getting things done as the director. But, you connect with them and there is this dynamic going where they help you as much as you are helping them.”
Similarly to Schain, Steiner has gained useful skills from her experience as a director. She was able to talk with her cast to truly make this a collaborative production.
“It’s all about patience,” Steiner said. “With this [role], you can’t get too frustrated or else you won’t get anything done. So, with certain things, you have to play around with it until you find what you want to see. For me, I relied a lot on my cast and asked for their ideas and opinions on something, and used their ideas then tweaked it until I got what I wanted.”