The Red and Black

Ashley Whiting and Brian McGuire rehearse their one-act play, part of "Fourteen by Tenn." (Ashley E. Chapman - The Red & Black) [Click to enlarge]

He may be well known for his full-length plays about the South in the 1950s, but along with "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," Tennessee Williams also wrote a collection of one-act plays.

Directing students from a drama class will direct and produce 14 of these short plays for "Fourteen by Tenn," a one-act festival sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Film Studies.

Only seven one-acts will be performed tonight. The other seven were performed last night.

"(Tennessee Williams) is known for his realist characterization," said Farley Richmond, professor of the DRAM 5600 directing class. "Students will have the opportunity to see how his plays work with actors."

The one-act plays are the final projects for his directing students, who will be graded on a collection of written assignments and the actors' performances in the showcase tonight.

"What the actors do on stage represents what the directors did - such as blocking," Richmond said. "It's a process of what any director would have to do to prepare for a performance."

The students have studied major concepts of directing in preparation for their own work.

"The intention is to give students a chance to work with other students in a classroom setting," he said. "We've focused on composition, picturization, play analysis and how plays communicate meaning through actors."

There is virtually no set for each of the plays, and students have pulled together boxes and costumes from their own closets, he said.

Josh Jones, a senior from St. Mary's, will direct the one-act "A Portrait of a Madonna," which details an aging, big-city socialite who is slowly going insane.

"(The play) is about her story and all the things she had to endure to see why she is crazy," he said.

He also said it has been a challenge working on a play by Tennessee Williams, but his use of language is quite beautiful.

"(Tennessee Williams) is one of the new modern greats - a modern Shakespeare," he said. "There's always an element of decay in his plays, and it makes you empathize and appreciate how times have passed."

He said directing the one-act has taught him about managing actors, working with time schedules and handling problems that are always going to pop up.

"If you have a creative mind and are into the project, you are going think of a lot of really cool things," he said.

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