Casting Call: 11 plays, 14 directors, 27 uncasted rolls…and 31 days to get it done! Hard work comes in handy, but the academy theatre seniors know that adrenaline is truly the secret key to success.
Every year, the seniors in the Theatre Strand of the Visual & Performing Arts Academy spend the majority of their class time writing, directing, and producing a handful of short plays compiled together for one “Fringe Festival,” a performing arts term used to describe a showing composed of a handful of productions that come together for one big celebration of the arts, or in this case, a celebration of both theatre and education.
After months of writing, this year’s Fringe Festival is on its way into production. The senior Theatre class has just chosen the directors for each of the 11 plays and has set their auditions to April 8th and 9th. Although only the theatre seniors are producing these plays, ALL academy students no matter the strand, as well as fine-arts theatre students, in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade are both allowed and encouraged to audition for the shows. No acting experience is required, only a willingness to perform.
If cast, first read-throughs will take place after school either April 10th or 11th depending on the play, so prepare for a quick start!
Not interested in acting? No problem! The event is free admission and performances will be May 10th and 11th at Virginia Wesleyan University’s Joan and Macon Brock Theatre located in the Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center. Also, the Fringe Festival does count as a theatre senior production, so if you are an academy student in need of filling your graduation requirement of going to see another strand’s senior production, both activity/involvement in the Fringe Festival as well as audience participation will count.
Now the part everyone’s truly been waiting for. Below is the official 2024 Salem Fringe Festival play setlist with the playwright, director(s), and synopsis as explained by the play’s director:
“Get School’d: Relationship Edition”
Written by: Janiya Vanderpool-Askew & Celeste Wise
Directed by: Alexandria Steward
Synopsis: Good morning world! “Get School’d: Relationship Edition” takes place during the studio audience taping of a talk show, hosted by two longtime best friends. However, they soon discover a problem that will test their friendship…live, on air. While they don’t first see eye to eye, they must learn to confront the issue and attack the problem instead of attacking each other in this dramatic comedy.
“Life Could be a Dream, (Sh-Boom)”
Written by: Phaedra Diacopoulos
Directed by: Tristan Blanco & Tatijana Copeland
Synopsis: “Life could be a Dream” is a psychological drama set in 1958. In the play, Jane Doe has strange encounters with a bunny that she hallucinates. As she deals with weird interactions and events caused by her hallucination, the play explores themes of identity and familial loss, leading to an unsettling ambiance.
Tatijana Copeland: “I’m really excited about the movement aspect of this play. It’s very abstract, very mime-y, and it requires someone being able to play with exaggerated expressions. It reminds me of our junior year Acting Lab class a lot. I really liked that class and this play just screams Acting Lab. The rabbit in this play is also terrifying and so I’m also excited about that. Mostly, though, I just feel like it’s gonna be fun figuring out the physical aspect and having those moments and designing the vibe of creepiness.
Tristan Blanco: “I’m most excited because it’s Phaedra’s play. This play is like, out of my comfort zone, but as Mrs. Trace says, ‘Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.’ Usually, comedies are my strength, but now I’m doing something scary and I don’t like scary stuff. This play reminded me of Donnie Darko, and that’s one of my favorite movies. It’s like an abstract horror. I just can’t wait to put it on at Virginia Wesleyan. We’ll be the first class to do it there; it’s exciting.”
“Intertwined”
Written by: Isabella Olivero
Directed by: Celeste Wise & Janiya Vanderpool-Askew
Synopsis: “Intertwined” is about two best friends, Winnie and Adri, who struggle to find their way back to each other after Adri goes missing. With the help of Winnie’s mom Yolanda, Officer Haven, and her unexpected visions, Winnie works towards discovering Adri’s true fate in hopes of finding her.
Celeste Wise: “I’m excited to see what I can create just based on one singular play. I’m most nervous about the spacing. I know we have a good amount of space at Virginia Wesleyan’s theatre, but in our play, there are multiple rooms that we will have to create so I’m kinda nervous about how we’ll do that and figure it out, but I think it allows us to play with things in a way that I’ve never done before. I’m also excited to see my ideas interpreted by someone else for the play I’ve written and seeing how it comes out.”
Janiya Vanderpool-Askew: “I would say that the process for planning our Fringe Festival this year has been very stressful because we haven’t really spent that much time on it. We talked about it at the beginning of the year, but it kind of feels like we almost put it on the back burner because we were working on children’s theatre and everything else. That’s one thing that’s making me nervous… going into the upcoming process and looking to schedule the cast and crew together is gonna be stressful. But, I’m excited to see how everything turns out this year, and ultimately I think it’s gonna go well!”
“Play #4”
Written by: Jasper Covington
Directed by: Sammi Easmeil
Synopsis: “Play #4” is a play in a play in a play, or in better explanation, it follows two actors of a sitcom-like show in their efforts to perform a scene in front of a live studio audience, but nothing seems to go exactly as planned. They deal with fights that break out caused by strong creative differences, an overly emotional runner, and an overload of sandwiches as they try and try again to perform the scene “perfectly.” This situational comedy is interactive, entertaining, and a very creative way to flip a story outside of the box.
Sammi Easmeil: “I am super super excited about designing the world of the play. This is a very funny play and I really want to take it to that next level so it gets a lot of laughs from the audience. And, I’m really nervous about making sure that my vision and Japser’s vision are executed. As much as I know that it is my play now because I am directing it, I want to stay true to what the writer intended, which is funny, silly, and goofy laughs. I can’t wait to help create something that’s gonna make the audience laugh.”
“Wing-Service”
Written by: Maxwell Estep
Directed by: Maggie Bee S.B. & Caroline Orr
Synopsis: Two birds are preparing for migration and an upcoming winter. They discover a place that says to offer food and preparation gear to migrating birds but find themselves in a qualm when they realize it’s actually a chicken wing store. The owner of the store rips off one of the bird’s wings, leaving him flightless and causing him to be left behind by both his flock and lifelong companion. Now enraged, he begins to prepare his revenge as he grows numb to all the wisdom and bird-like instincts he used to have.
Caroline Orr: “I’m so excited about the technical aspect of it. These are birds, who need wings, but they need to be wings that can be ripped off and act like fingers. And I’m also really excited about the lights, I’ve been thinking about them for a while.”
Maggie Bee S.B.: “I am so excited to explore the dark romanticism of it. I don’t mean romanticism as in love, it’s not a love story by any means. It’s kind of like a modern Poe or an urban dark romanticism. There’s no big resolution, no big happy ending. It’s like a dark romantic tragicomedy. I’m also excited about casting because the roles are very versatile and I can’t even imagine who would be in them.”
“No Strings Attached”
Written by: Tatijana Copeland
Directed by: Isabella Olivero & Caleigh Howell
Synopsis: A character named Love is tied together, quite literally, with their “soulmate” named Catch-22 by a string of fate. However, after 22 proposes to Love, she starts to rethink the perfection of destiny, and whether love or freedom is more important to her, or even possible to achieve.
Isabella Olivero: “I am excited for a lot of things about Fringe! I’m really excited to work with Caleigh Howell because she’s awesome and I love her. ‘No Strings Attached’ is definitely abstract, it’s like an abstract dramatic romance. I’m really excited for makeup designs because I have good ideas for that and I’m excited to create our characters. ‘No Strings Attached’ is going to be really fun with makeup designs.”
Caleigh Howell: “’No Strings Attached’ is a super abstract, dynamic, and physical play. The actors are going to be physically tied together and connected with a string for the entire play, which I think will be challenging with physical movement but also super fun to explore. It’ll be a process for sure, but I have no doubt that we can do it. From what Izzy and I have started to discuss, there’s a very dark jewel color palette, a lot of symbolism, and a lot of controlled mess. It’s going to be so much fun creating this world visually together.”
“Sylvie”
Written by: Caroline Orr
Directed by: Caleigh Howell & Isabella Olivero
Synopsis: After 21-year-old Kenny’s death, she finds herself outside the gates to the afterlife, which presents itself as a rusted fence outside of the abandoned amusement park. She reunites with her old best friend Sylvie, who died when she was only 11 years old. While both are ecstatic with their meet-up, Kenny’s need to move on and Sylvie’s fear of the unknown contradict as they decide what to do next.
Caleigh Howell: “’Sylvie’ is such a beautiful play, visually and with storytelling. I love how much these characters contrast. They are about 10 years different in age, one of them appears a lot more “ghostly” than the other, and the maturity levels and attachment levels of course contradict between the two characters. Finding our characters and exploring that contrasting beauty with both design and character work is gonna be a lot of fun.”
Isabella Olivero: “’Sylvie’ is a sentimental comedy, and I’m excited for the costume design of this play. I’m specifically looking forward to designing Sylvie, our ghost girl, and designing our set which will be very foresty kind of. I’m excited to see what we can do with that. And again, I’m excited to collaborate with Caleigh.”
“STUPEFY”
Written by: Tristan Blanco
Directed by: Maxwell Estep
Synopsis: Bob is a hypnotist preparing for his biggest show yet! He’ll be pulling a few volunteers from the audience to demonstrate his amazing powers over the mind…until his choices create two beings hell-bent on toilet (world) domination!! Will be he able to hypno his way out of this? Find out in this new fun and light-hearted comedy.
Maxwell Estep: “The play is a comedy, and I’m very excited to cast some of the underclassmen and seniors from theatre and other academy strands. Two of the three roles in this play switch personalities on the fly, so I’m looking forward to seeing some versatility as well as just working with the cast and getting a feel for real directing!”
“Signal”
Written by: Caleigh Howell
Directed by: Orion Davis
Synopsis: Jamie, a college student, interacts with their little sister, their roommate, and a stranger who calls her during a raging storm one night through various phone calls. As she tries to process her changing relationships with each character, she comes to terms with important reflections she had previously avoided about her personal life.
Orion Davis: “’Signal’ is a drama involving sibling relationships, grief, and elements of magical realism. It revolves around the phone calls of a college student named Jamie, with their younger sister Andy, their roommate Finley, and a mysterious caller. I’m most nervous about time management and scheduling, but I’m most excited about collaborating with the actors and working on the costumes, set, and props.”
“Prince’s Folly”
Written by: Hunter Olsen
Directed by: Jasper Covington
Synopsis: “Prince’s Folly” follows a forbidden romance between Elio, a prince, and his court jester Luphas. The play begins with a debate between the two about the dangerous fate of their love when Elio tells Luphas he is ready to declare their love to the rest of the world. Their conflicting ideas of balancing safety with passion inspire the start of their fight to break down the barriers of their opposing classes in the name of loving each other.
Jasper Covington: “I am so excited about directing this play. I think my favorite part about it is going to be designing and putting together the costumes as well as casting the play. Right now I’m really enjoying the ‘mind map’ design process of it all and the analysis of it all. Queer representation always has been and always will be necessary in storytelling, even or especially in media that doesn’t solely revolve around being queer, and I think it’s an honor to help convey that.”
“Myers’ Injury”
Written by: Sammi Easmeil
Directed by: Hunter Olsen
Synopsis: “Myer’s Injury” is a Suspenseful Drama that takes place in a dystopian prison system. It follows Sam Walker, a newly hired 18-year-old prison guard, and Myers, a 50-year-old prisoner. The play takes place in two separate time periods, with Sam getting his first big orders, and Myers being asked to discuss suspicious circumstances regarding a fellow prisoner named Lettie a few years later.
Hunter Olsen: “My biggest challenge with this piece will most likely be trying to create a connection between two characters at different times not talking to each other. Their stories are intertwined while being completely separate. They need to be in the same universe while also being different enough to where they won’t be together. Since I am directing this play alone, I have a lot of work on my plate to make my vision possible, but I know I can do it.”
The Technical Director for this year’s Fringe Festival is Phaedra Diacopoulos. “As Technical Director, I oversee the event. I organize and make sure everything runs smoothly; I work alongside directors and coordinate accordingly. I am most excited to see all the plays come together and to see their end results. Especially the play I wrote, as biased as I am, I’m super excited to see what Tati and Tristan do with it.”
One of the coolest things about the seniors’ Fringe Festival is that all written plays have to be directed by a different student. This allows for each student to practice and experience creative interpretation both themselves with a piece they are unfamiliar with, and experience it by watching how another student interprets and produces their original piece.
If you’re interested in auditioning, don’t forget to join us April 8th and 9th in the Schola after school. If not, we will see you on May 10th and 11th at Virginia Wesleyan!
