Franklin High School’s drama students will perform for an audience for the first time this year with a series of original productions next weekend.
Theatre teacher Robert Jessup says that the school’s drama department has never experimented with putting on original shows for an audience before, but it does come with several advantages. For one thing, it’s cheaper for the school because they don’t have to pay for the rights to an existing show. For another, it offers more flexibility to shape a show around the class performing it. Most important of all, though, is that crafting an original production from top to bottom opens up more of the theatrical experience to students who are passionate about it.
“It’s the first time that we’ve ever let the students write and direct their own plays before,” Jessup said. “If a kid maybe isn’t the best actor but they’re a great writer, this is their time to shine.”
On one night of a two-night engagement, 12 students will spend five minutes apiece performing original monologues. On another, they’ll put on three 15-minute original plays. One follows a group of high school students trapped in an existential nightmare, another explores the process of trying to stage a musical and the third is a reimagined take on the folktale of the Hatfields and McCoys. Senior Peyton Wood said getting to write his own play was a more personal way to get invested in performing in his last semester at school.
“I’m a country boy at heart, but I don’t usually get to see country shows like this one,” Wood said of his version of the Hatfields and McCoys story. “This is a good chance to do something different.”
Staging plays during COVID-19 has been all but impossible. Even if restrictions on gatherings and social distancing had been loose enough to fill the auditorium, staggered class schedules were never conducive to rehearsal. Jessup said the live experience is critical for his class in a way that standard coursework can’t fully replace, so he’s thankful that there will be time for performances before the end of this school year.
“It’ll be the first time that some of them have been on stage in over a year,” Jessup said. “We’re very excited to be able to do stuff on stage again.”
It’s just as exciting for the students, who say they’ve been creatively challenged and rewarded by the project in ways that they haven’t in the past.
“I can express myself without being scared,” senior Blanca Melendez said. “That’s why I chose theatre in the first place.”
Franklin High School will host the plays on Friday, May 14 at 7 p.m. and the monologues on Saturday, May 15 at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $5 for one night or $8 for both nights. For more information, contact Robert Jessup by calling Franklin High School at 828-524-6467 or emailing robert.jessup@macon.k12.nc.us.