By Alexandra Alarcon
The annual student-directed UC Santa Barbara theater event Spring One-Acts provided a weekend full of laughter, drama, and suspense. This year's theme was Dark Corners: A Night of Comedies.
The audience was treated to three comedy one-act plays, each with a dark twist, directed by UCSB theater students. Many lighthearted and heavy emotions flowed throughout the on-campus studio theater, leaving the crowd both gleeful and shocked.
Actors and directors of UCSB’s annual ‘Spring One Acts’ taking a bow on stage.
The three one-act plays were individually directed by seniors in the undergraduate Theater program: “The Blood is Life,” directed by Gryphon Seveney, “A Game,” directed by Gabi Baltzell, and “Oeuf,” directed by Jeremy Percy. They dedicated several months of their time and applied their UCSB education toward directing the plays to complete their senior concentration in directing.
The student-directors each selected a play of their choice and employed creative liberties to make their play more memorable. The directors collaborated with fellow UCSB students in the acting Bachelor of Fine Arts program, who all auditioned to be in the plays.
The Blood is Life, by Julie Zaffarano, is a play about two tourist sisters who wind up in Dracula’s castle while visiting Romania, and ultimately decide to permanently stay at the castle, instead of going back to their normal life. In addition to comedic relief, the play prompts reflection, with several layered messages.
“The play is essentially a huge metaphor for coming out as not straight,” Seveney said.
Seveney attempted to make her rendition of The Blood is Life memorable by enhancing existing scenes with extra comedic relief or aesthetics — adding lines which may have not been included in the original script.
“What’s in the script is not always going to land,” Seveney said. “The first time you read a script, you go ‘this is hilarious,’ and then you see it play out on stage and you’re like ‘oh, maybe it read better.’” Gryphon said. “And you’re like, ‘what can we do to make this funnier?’ It’s all about finding those little moments.”
Actors performing on stage during UCSB’s Spring One Act “The Blood is Life” directed by Gryphon Seveney
Seveney said she added an outfit change for the character Vlad Dracula during a disco scene that was not originally in the script. Creative liberties like these allow the directors' and actors’ talents to further develop their craft, she said.
Student director Baltzell chose to direct “The Game,” by Louis Bryant, a play about a social experiment in which three individuals are assigned to a portion of land in a room. Each land is the same size, but the different shapes of the land cause outrage among the participants, and the play ends with them in a fit of rage murdering the doctor who conducted the experiment.
The characters in “The Game” do not have any defining characteristics written in the script, other than being labeled a doctor or a participant. This affords the director much leeway to interpret the characters' personalities and identities. Baltzell encouraged the actors to carry out creative strategies to bring the characters to life.
“It’s really nice to work with people who want to be there to work, to help this play become what it is,” Baltzell said. “We dig deeper into the play, and it’s not just what I’ve discovered [about the play], but also things that my actors have discovered. They know these characters more than I do because they have to live with these characters.”
The Spring One Act play ”The Game,” directed by senior UCSB undergraduate student Gabi Baltzell
Baltzell and her actors have a conversation about what is instinctive for the characters and if the director agrees with the actor's creative suggestions, she will incorporate it, or brainstorm other options. This level of back-and-forth collaboration between the actors and director strengthens the performance.
Baltzell compared her directing experience to “driving a car.”
“There’s a really big misconception about directors controlling everything. It’s more that I’m driving ‘the car,’ but I don’t make up the parts of ‘the car.’ I’m not the other passengers in the car who change the music, decide where to eat, etc. I just drive the car and navigate a little bit.”
The dedication of the senior directors and student actors, along with talent and passion, made the UCSB 2024 Spring One Acts possible. Students took creative liberties, developing their craft while providing a night of entertainment for theatergoers.
“Going to UCSB theater shows is a cool opportunity to see the future art makers of our society, and to see students putting in hours of hard work as creators, Baltzell said. “Attending these events provides an opportunity to see really talented creators before they run off into the world and create what they create. It’s like if you were to go see Brad Pitt before he became the Brad Pitt.”
Alexandra Alarcon is a third-year Sociology major at UC Santa Barbara. She wrote this article for her Digital Journalism class.