"Seven Interviews" Casting Results
The cast list for DLA’s next drama production is out and here is what the performers and directors have to say.
With two plays and one musical in their production history, Del Lago’s Drama Club is at it again with another show. After all the hard work they put into doing their first musical last semester, they’ve decided to take a break from spontaneous singing and dancing and do a simple play. The play they’re working on this time is called Seven Interviews.
Seven Interviews is a play comprising of, as the title implies, seven different interviews. With these seven interviews, there are seven different scenes in the show, all of them unrelated to each other. There’s no need to understand one scene in order to get the next. Seven Interviews has everything, containing scenes that are both comedic and dramatic. Whether you’re looking for a crazy eyepatch lady, or a mother seeking retribution, Seven Interviews has it all.
“I wanted to do several short scenes,” said Ms. Schwartz, after being asked about what made her choose Seven Interviews. “Everytime I pick a play, I’m trying to pick one where kids do something they didn’t do before. So first we did Shakespeare which was comedy - we did The Complete Works of Shakespeare we didn’t do actual Shakespeare. And then we did She Kills Monsters which was like an action adventure and there was fighting. Then we did Zombie Prom which is a musical. And now we’re doing Seven Interviews. There are seven short scenes so seven kids got to direct, which is a thing we haven’t done before. It gave lots of parts for people to play so there are lots of opportunities for students to be involved.”
Unlike their past productions, the Drama Club is trying out something completely new. For the first time, Del Lago’s Drama club is going to have students directors. Most of the directors have been long time drama members, participating in all of DLA’s past productions. A few were asked about how they felt taking on this new role.
“It’s a power change,” said Parker Loux, who will be directing the first scene. “It’s a shift in positions. I went from being the one taking the orders to giving the orders. It’s hopefully going to be very fruitful for drama knowledge.”
“I’m really excited about it,” said Reese Welch, director of the fifth scene. “I always like taking leadership opportunities. And I feel like this is obviously a highly regarded position and it has a lot of responsibility and I’m really excited to have the opportunity to have that. So, I’m excited about it. But obviously there’s a little bit of nervousness involved in that. But definitely excited.”
Below is the official cast list for DLA’s production of Seven Interviews.
The directors will be having almost complete power over what will happen in their part of the show, meaning they will have the opportunity to watch auditions and have almost complete power over their scenes. Being performers now taking on a new position of authority, they no longer were the people on stage auditioning, but the people in the audience watching. Parker gave some insight on this:
“I feel for them. I feel sympathetic. You can tell when they’re obviously nervous. I know how it is to be in that position. During the auditions I wanted to be like, ‘It’s okay.’ But I couldn’t.”
One of the most difficult parts of theater is probably the casting process, next to actually picking the show and technical rehearsals. Being met with these new, tough decisions, the directors were asked about the hardest part of casting people into the show.
“I think just seeing which personalities go with which roles best,” said Brittany McDowell, co-director of the second and third scenes. “And then, during callbacks, adjusting that. Because, during auditions you think, ‘Oh this is the person!’ and then it turns out to not be, so it’s like adjusting your thoughts.”
“It was kind of hard because everybody was really good,” said Bethany Taylor, the other co-director of the two previously mentioned scenes. “I mean there’s still definitely people that we liked over others, but it’s like, ‘Huh, this is good!’ But callbacks really helped to narrow it down and we were all like, ‘Aha! I want that one!’ And then it all fell into place.”
Overall, the actors are happy with their roles. Looking at the list, past members of drama have returned and new members have joined. A couple of them were able to provide their input on their roles and the show.
“I’m playing Timothina and Yvonne,” said Sylvia Tran, one of drama’s new members. “They’re both crazy. Yvonne hears music in her head and around her, so that’s gonna be fun. And Timothina’s...interesting. Very interesting.”
“I play Huck,” said Anthony Flores, another new member. “He is a religious grandfather attempting to pull his grandson out of a Christian school after his [the grandson’s] father died.”
“I am playing Abel March and Roger Toddle,” said Colin McDowell, a returning drama member. His first production with DLA was last semester’s Zombie Prom. “Roger Toddle is in the first scene of the play and he is an interviewer looking for a new secretary. He seems normal at the beginning, but he acts really strange and doesn’t quite reveal everything. It’s a comedic role. His secretary that he has currently is...different. Abel is almost the opposite. He is in the last scene and it’s a very dramatic role where he is a very serious, angry boss of a maid who he discovered has been [spoilers censored] and he has been talking to her on Christmas Eve. He has to fire her and it’s a whole ordeal when she finds out about one of his secrets.”
The last person that was spoken to about the show was Sean Mougier, who says, “I am playing Britney. She’s like a sassy, kind of like, annoyed person to everyone, especially to Abel.”
Most of the performers have never participated in a student directed production. Considering that they’ll get to experience that with the upcoming show, the same people were asked about their feelings pertaining to having student directors.
Anthony replied with, “It might be a little more interesting to give the students a chance to try and direct. Because not everyone is in drama for the acting. Some people are there to learn to be a director, or say like a stage makeup artist or something. So it’s nice to give the kids another option.”
“I think that it will be interesting,” said Sylvia, “because most of the student directors have already been through drama and they know what they’re doing and they’ve been actors in the school plays before. So it’ll be interesting to see their perspective and how they do things.”
When asked the same question, Ms. Schwartz said, “I feel great. I’m very excited. I wanna see what people do. They’ll be better than I am, and then everyone will be upset. That’s my new goal. I want them to be better than me.”
Del Lago’s Drama Club allows students to meet new people, make new friends, and to allow them to freely express and be themselves. As with most productions, there are many newcomers to the drama family. When asked about their first impressions of the people in drama, this is what they said:
“They’re nice. They’re very loud and excitable, which is fun. They all seem really close to each other, which is really cool,” said Sylvia.
“It’s a really welcoming place. It seems like an open, welcoming place for anybody to walk in and be friends with everyone there,” said Anthony.
On a similar note, one of the returning members gave some insight on how being a part of drama has helped them grow as a person.
“It’s a really inclusive and fun environment,” said Colin. “I know when I first joined I was extremely nervous that I wasn’t really gonna fit in, that I wasn’t going to make friends. But now that I’m into my second show, I’m completely changed. I’m a lot less quiet and shy just because of the type of people that are in drama. It’s super welcoming. Everyone just wants to have fun and enjoy the show.”
Each of them, both directors and performers, were asked to describe Seven Interviews in three words.
“Fast, fun and dramatic” said Reese.
“Lots of fun...No, no, no, no, wait, let me change that...Mix of emotions,” said Parker.
“All the things,” said Bethany.
“Lots of emotion,” said Brittany.
“Lots of interviews,” said Sylvia.
“Wasn’t expecting it,” said Anthony.
“Something for everyone,” said Colin.
“Mysterious, exciting, and adventurous,” said Sean.
“All the things,” said Ms. Schwartz, coincidentally repeating Bethany’s response.
Seven Interviews will begin previews on April 27 and will open on April 28.