ART & TRAVEL

INSIDE THE BUBBLE Theater troupe members tackle challenging roles in festival

By Clara De La O ’27 Staff Writer

One Hacker Theater, eight student-written and directed plays, a small tech team with a dream, too many costumes to count, and only eight weeks to get it all done. As Rachel Sinay, the faculty production director said, “This is a student takeover of the theater.”

Casting occurred the last week of Porter’s winter trimester before students rushed off to their spring break destinations, but the work didn’t stop there. Sasha London-Thompson was in communication with the student directors over break, helping them carefully shape and detail their one acts before rehearsals started. The writers/directors were very precise with their crafting, given the unique opportunity to control the outcome of their visions.

Every student actor in the program was involved in more than one show, requiring a thoughtfully made schedule. Certain shows got “primary slots” during certain hours, getting priority on which actors they would have for rehearsal. A second show would be assigned the same time slot, but be considered “secondary,” only getting the leftovers of which actors weren’t already busy. Shows sharing time slots were planned to share as little of their casts as possible so both shows could optimize rehearsal time. It was complex, but it worked a majority of the time.

The student directors were put in charge of pulling their own costumes