U-High Theatre will host its annual Student Experimental Theater show on Feb. 27 and 28 at 7 p.m. in the Sherry Lansing Theater, featuring a collection of student-written one-acts with the overarching theme of “Seasons.” SET is a theater tradition where any U-High student can submit a short piece for consideration.
The production is entirely student-led, offering a unique opportunity for students to write, design and perform a show completely on their own. Tickets are free but must be reserved online in advance.
Matt Boresi, theater director, said the production brings some of Lab’s core values to life.
“Lab is a student-centered school; it always has been,” Mr. Boresi said. “It’s the perfect chance for students to engage in a student-driven form of learning, where they can take a leadership role and freely explore.”
Students across all grades submitted pieces centered on the theme of seasons, which was chosen to allow for a wide range of interpretations, according to Mr. Boresi.
“Students worked together to choose a theme that would be broadly interpretable so that the maximum number of concepts could fit into that theme,” he said.
Participants could write acts literally about seasons, like summer or winter, or focus on more figurative ideas, such as rebirth or decay. Once submissions were collected, a student committee, led by board chairs Evelyn Halbach and Addy Johnson, selected which scenes to perform.
According to Mr. Boresi, the committee worked to include as many scenes as possible and were willing to send pieces back for tweaking or resubmission if needed.
“They were looking for things that will provide a lot of opportunity and which will be creative or experimental or exploratory,” Mr. Boresi said.
Student experiences reflected this emphasis on creativity. Junior Alex Dearing, who is part of the lights crew and contributed to directing the scene “The Corn Maze,” liked that students were able to put on the shows they wanted to see.
“SET really gives me a chance to have a theater performance that I latch onto,” Alex said. “It’s also cool to see the creativity that comes out of students directing.”
Students were able to design and perform their own creations, allowing for more varied scripts and set designs.
“It’s cool having a bunch of different environments because for the regular show we have just one scene, but here it’s a fun challenge,” Alex said.
Ninth grader Vera Cyrenne, who is acting in the scenes “Picnic” and “The Wolves,” felt like the rehearsal process is going well, despite some obstacles.
“A couple of the road blocks we’ve hit are line memorization and timing issues, but I think we can overcome them really easily,” Vera said.
Overall, with its student-led directing, expanded crew, and collaborative environment, producing the SET show was a rewarding experience for theater students.
“I think it’s really interesting,” Alex said, “to see what a collaboration of 10 or so students can do.”
