Meramec hosts student director showcase
By: Missy Arneson
Copy Editor
On April 25, at 7 p.m. in the theater, St. Louis Community College-Meramec hosted a student director showcase, allowing students in the theater program to test their directing skills for an audience. Student actors performed six different short plays chosen by six different directors — each with their own reasons for picking their particular play.
“Thes reason I chose Dick Piston: Hotel Detective was because it was funny,” Meramec student director Orion Zmashenski said about his play, “Murder by Midnight.” “Comedy’s a big part of my life, and I wanted to make people laugh tonight.”
Student director Dorothy Robinson chose her play “Variations on a Theme” because she played a role in her high school’s production. The play revolves around the many ways a couple could share a final moment before parting — or not share it.
“The last scene scene always gets me, where the one character walks onstage, and the other one is going to talk to her, but changes their mind and they just never…” Robinson said. “I feel like there’s a lot of ways you can interpret it, and I feel like any person can personally relate to it their own way. I personally relate to it because I see Nic [one of the characters] choosing to let her [another character, Meg] go and live her own life.”
Student director Rebecca Bolin chose her play “The Philadelphia” because it was comical.
“We had to read through a bunch of different scripts,” Bolin said. “I actually had a different one in mind, but the problem was, it was 30 minutes long and couldn’t be cut … ‘Philadelphia’ was hilarious. The more I read it, the dry humor in it, it was just like, ‘oh my god, that’s a funny moment, I can do something with that.’”
Of course, there’s more to theater than humor. Theater, like any other art, usually has a deeper meaning below the surface, especially to the director.
“I’ve gone through a lot of stuff like this,” Robinson said. “I definitely think it’s just a good representation of sometimes ‘I’m sorry’ and speaking in general will never be enough to win that person back or even fix what you’ve done.”
But sometimes, lighthearted theater is just lighthearted theater.
“I just wanted to make people laugh,” Bolin said. “The meaning to me was making people laugh.”
As for the next step, the directors have high hopes.
“The high high of tonight’s ‘Murder by Midnight’ makes me feel really good, so I’m hoping to either go back to acting myself, or just kind of enjoy the rest of the ride,” Zmashenski said.
