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Five plays, three nights, 50 teens Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Eagle Point High School drama students Joe Cardon and Samantha Bates act out a scene from "An Actor�s Nightmare," one of five plays EPHS students are performing in a theatrical extravaganza that continues tonight. By Damian Mann EAGLE POINT � Five plays every evening for three days � what were they thinking? A group of some 50 ambitious Eagle Point High School drama students asked themselves: why mount one production when they could have five, and then throw in a little dancing to boot? With youthful pluckiness and the apparent motto that "the plays are the thing," these students are dazzling Eagle Point residents with a theatrical extravaganza. Five one-act plays and four dances will continue tonight during an almost three-hour, student-directed and student-acted production. If you go What: Five plays and four dances, acted and directed by Eagle Point High School students. When: 7:30 tonight. Another presentation will be held next week to replace Thursday night�s performance, canceled because of snow. Where: Eagle Point High School Stage. Cost: $3 for students and seniors, $5 for adults at the door. Proceeds will help fund the upcoming production of "Annie" in the spring. But the magnitude of the undertaking has been a little overwhelming for some of the directors, who have only had one month of preparation and are working with students who, in some cases, have never acted before. "I really want to do theater, but I will never do this again � it scares me now," said 18-year-old Laura Adams, director of "Actor�s Nightmare," in which the plot revolves around a rather perplexed young man who wakes up on a stage and is told he is the main actor in a play, but he is never quite sure what the play is. Adams admits it has been a bit of a director�s nightmare to coordinate five actors. But, as she dealt with opening night jitters, Adams said, "We�ve had one rehearsal that turned out a lot better than I thought." Better than anybody could imagine, especially with only one month to practice, this group of actors is tackling mostly comedies that require precise timing and lots of tricky dialogue. A group of students and adults watched the rehearsal Wednesday afternoon of "Actor�s Nightmare," which elicited laughs and nods of approval as the young actors pronounced their lines with remarkable precision. But 16-year-old Josh Dinwiddie, director of "The Feast," has found out how difficult it is to keep a group of actors together. When one of them just wasn�t working out in a particular role, Dinwiddie had to step in as replacement, becoming both director and actor. "I hadn�t planned on it," he said. "It�s been hard trying to juggle my school work with the show." Laveta Osborne, 18, said, "It�s a great learning experience. It�s fun, but hard at the same time." Osborne, director of "Impromptu," said the most difficult thing for her has been to take on the role of leader and keep control of the production. Student director Kristen Smith, 18, realized that she better keep things simple if she wanted to pull off the performance of "The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year." "I haven�t ever directed before," she said. "I didn�t want to take on a bunch of people." Smith decided on a play that has two cast members and lasts 20 minutes. On the other hand, Adam Daniels, 17, chose to tackle the dark, Faustian production of "The Shoemaker and the Devil." "It is definitely darker than the other plays," he said. "But I�ve tried to make it a little lighter." With eight novice cast members � "all newbies" � Daniels admits he�s got his hands full. "Some of them are still kind of getting used to their lines," he said. Teacher Jesse Longhurst, director of the Eagle Institute of Performing Arts, said she has tried to stay out of the way during the production, though she has been available to answer questions and make suggestions. She said mounting five plays has been difficult but rewarding. "There is always a point in a production where things are falling apart and you think they won�t get back together," she said. "But it is really amazing what these students can do with their own initiative." Upon hearing of the students� proposal to have five plays and four dances, Longhurst said, "My immediate reaction was, �That�s going to be a long night�." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.