by Madeline Best

Senior Gabby Ferro, who has starred in past STA productions such as “Quality Street” as well as acting in past student productions, has chosen to take over the director’s chair with a production of her own this year. Ferro said she looks forward to a successful production.

“I have been a stage manager and a light crew member in the past, so I have had opportunities to step back and watch productions come to life in the past,” Ferro said. “I think, at least I hope, I will be a great director since I have been in the actors’ shoes as well as many of the crew members’ shoes.”

Every spring, seniors have the opportunity to try their hands at directing through STA’s annual student productions. Unlike other school productions, seniors play not only the roles of actors, but writers and directors as well. These productions create the opportunity for all seniors to participate regardless of whether they have been previously involved in acting or production crew before, according to Ferro. Although she is not sure when exactly the tradition of student productions started, drama teacher Shana Prentiss said they started well before she began teaching at STA 13 years ago.

Although some student productions are written a few weeks or months before the show, Ferro has had hers planned for over a year. As part of a class project for playwriting her junior year, she wrote a one-act play, the exact requirement for student productions. Ferro struggled to come up with an idea at first, until receiving some unexpected inspiration.

“My dad gave me this crazy idea at the dinner table one night about deer crossing the road,” Ferro said. “To be honest, I thought it was completely insane at first, but then I thought it over and I realized I could maybe use deer crossing the road as an analogy to an experience I had.”

When Prentiss, Ferro’s playwriting teacher, first heard about Ferro’s idea, she was intrigued.

“I thought it was a little weird at first, but then [Gabby] played the sound bite that was the inspiration for it and I got it,” Prentiss said. “It was really creative and I thought it was different because we’ve never had a story from an animal’s point of view before, and I’m excited to see it produced.”

Ferro admits even with a solid plotline, writing can still be an intimidating process.

“It’s always scary to come up with an idea and present it to others because there is always the chance of rejection,” Ferro said. “Especially in theater, where applause and laughter and gasps are all indicators of work well done. The fear of silence is immense.”

After completing the writing process, student directors hold their own auditions, which invite students of all grade levels to try out for a chance to be cast in a production. Since it is up to the directors to run the auditions, the auditions can range anywhere from serious to completely goofy. Ferro recounts her own experience of auditioning for a comedy about STA physical education class.

“For ‘P.E. For Nerds’, I had to dance in a way that made the directors feel as uncomfortable as possible, which was really weird, and I didn’t know what to do,” Ferro said. “I also had to mime the process of mitosis, and I didn’t even know what that was. We also did a lot of cold readings where we read different characters’ lines.”

Since seniors are the sole directors of their productions, it is up to them to schedule rehearsal times, which can sometimes become an issue when you have a busy cast.

“In some shows it’s hard to get the group together, so there is a lot of outside work to do,” senior and past student productions cast member Sabrina Salerno said. “But when you can finally get in your group and run through it, it becomes like puzzle pieces, you just have to put them together.”

Student productions serve the purpose of allowing seniors to make something entirely their own, from the writing process to seeing their creation acted out on stage.

“Student productions really are not about the end product,” Ferro said. “At least in my opinion, student productions are about creating something special. A special written piece, a special bond between the cast members and directors and a special moment when the final product hits the stage for the audience to enjoy.”