The Student Led Charge

The lights dim and the audience settle into their seats. The announcement to silence all cellphones comes in over the speakers. Backstage the stage mangers call for places, while the actors prepare their second skins, ready to shed who they are and become someone else as the lights come up.  These are the exhilarating, adrenaline pumping moments that proceed any theatre performance, and for students in Drury University’s Theatre Department it’s no different.

The DU Theatre Department puts on four main stage shows per year, two in the fall semester and two in the spring.  The main stage shows are typically directed by the department’s faculty and consist of a musical in the fall and a classical show in the spring.  The 2016-17 season however has seen a couple changes to the department, and one of the biggest is that two of this season’s main stage shows will be student directed

The two student directed performances will occur in the spring of 2017 with the first being William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in March directed by Keith Taveras followed in April by a children’s production entitled, With Two Wings directed by Laura Spraggins.

Dr. Robin Schraft, a professor of theatre at Drury, says that the children’s show is something that DU Theatre has done successfully in the past, and is excited to for the chance to revisit it.  The show will bring in local elementary students to see what may be their first professional level production.  Dr. Schraft described this as an exciting opportunity for Drury’s students to get hands on experience, which is exactly what these student produced shows provide.

Drew Moore, a sophomore theatre student at Drury, is one of the students to benefit from these projects.  Moore is stage manager and lighting designer for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  He says, “I think that if I wasn’t involved with Midsummer in the ways I am, I would’ve had to wait until my third year here for the chance to design for a main stage.  And having this opportunity now not only gives me experience for when I am an upperclassman but it will allow me to have more credits on my resume which could potentially help me get jobs once I graduate and I think that is one of the most important opportunities I have from Midsummer being a main stage production.”

Keith Taveras says, “The department is changing, there’s no doubt about that, but these changes offer multitudes of opportunities for students.  And yes, while it does suck to lose those faculty members, the professors, realize that someone has to step up and are going to push the students, challenge them to challenge themselves.  I am excited by the opportunities presented to me, but I am being challenged by my professors, peers and myself.”

Having these opportunities available to you as a student can seem overwhelming but the reward after creating such a collaborative piece of work makes it worthwhile.   Drury’s Theatre Department is challenging their students with these student focused main stage shows, and they seem to be succeeding.