Award Winning Bob Jones Patriot Players started a new tradition this past Thursday. We all know that Mr. Craft writes the competition show, but on December 12, he shared the playwriting stage with the students in his Advanced Drama class.
Eleven Less Than Ten featured six dramatic and five comedic sketches. Some of the highlights include Subway Schemes, A Good Kid, Blondie and the Three Barrs, Better Brandon, and Mannered Mayhem.Many of the writers were seniors and include Alex Brown, Cheyenne Beacraft, and Mary Butgerit, but there were some amazing plays written by underclassmen.
According to Mr.Craft, the idea to start a student written play festival came from Mrs. Amy Patel, the drama teacher at James Clemons.
He went to his Advanced drama students with the idea, and they loved it. According to Cheyenne Beacraft, they started brainstorming as a class, then different students or groups of students developed the ideas into scenes.
Alice Grissom and Hannah Hossley agree that this experience helped them grow as actors and writers. “We could just ask the writer for acting direction!” In some cases, the writers acted in their own shows.
Many of the students that have taken any Drama class have preformed others’ work.Scripts are tried and true, guaranteeing a laugh or tear. self-written plays are untested and the work involved is painful. on the bright side, a writer can guarantee all of the actors a part and the characterization is tons easier.
This play festival marks the beginning of a new drama program. Mr. Craft hopes to make this an annual showcase of student work. For the seniors, this is bitter sweet; many of them are excited about the growth that this shows in the drama program and the focus on writing that was never really there before. But because is their last year, they will be moving on and will miss the opportunity to contribute in this show ever again.
