Every fall, the Lewis & Clark Theatre Department hosts the One-Act Festival, an inspiring student-produced event featuring three one-act plays. All of these plays are written, directed by and feature LC students. The theme for this year’s festival is “Habitual,” with all of the plays tackling what happens when we question the habits and beliefs that shape our lives.
The three plays in this year’s festival “Galatea,” written by Ellie Schwartz ’26 and directed by Skyler Gresham ’29; “Cleanse Yourself,” written by Jazz Buskin ’28 and directed by Zane Whitney ’26; and “I Always Knew It Would End This Way,” written by Josh Nguyen ’26 and Leigha Fickling ’27.
In anticipation of the festival, The Mossy Log interviewed Skyler Gresham to get a peek behind the scenes and understand their perspective as a director.
When it comes to their creative process, Gresham begins by reading the script in its entirety and mentally developing ideas for the elements of the play that excite them the most. In the case of “Galatea,” they were immediately captivated by an idea for the protagonist’s costume. In the play, Galatea is a girl carved from wax and brought to life by a boy. While reading, Gresham thought about representing this part of Galatea by having parts of her costume “melt” as the play goes on.
After a preliminary read-through, Gresham refines their ideas by jotting them down and making notes.
After developing a vision for the show, Gresham brings that vision to the stage. One part of the job that Gresham did not expect was how many different responsibilities were attached to it. In our interview, they mentioned a variety of necessary tasks. These include working on choreography, costume design and creation, as well as more logistical parts of the show such as taking inventory of props.
All of this existed in tandem with their primary role as director, helping develop the show’s characters with their student performers to bring Galatea to life. Although handling all of these aspects of the play may seem daunting, Gresham is able to do all of this by cooperating with their cast and crew members. In particular, they get a significant amount of help from Sarah Priestman ’29, who is credited as “Director’s Little Guy” in the program. Priestman acts as an assistant to the director and has helped to build the costume for the titular character Galatea. They have also helped incorporate elements of dance into this production.
As a director, Gresham valued cooperation and communication with Galatea’s cast. Although their initial conceptualization of the characters and relationships in the play is the driving force behind their direction, the actors’ interpretive feedback is also key in shaping the characters.
“I was very lucky to work with actors who really enjoy beating out the script and going over it line by line and discussing the characters in depth,” they said.
What happens in an average rehearsal is based on a schedule determined ahead of time. The play is split into several portions and practiced separately. Though Gresham noted that they had been “on and off” track when it came to rehearsals, the cast was still generally where they needed to be by the end of each session.
“It took us two rehearsals to fully go through the script and beat out the play. It was really helpful because they had a lot of great ideas and their ideas coexisted very well with mine. They also had a fantastic rapport, and I felt that was very good for developing the intimacy between the characters. I was very pleased with how they interpreted the characters.”
After practicing what was needed for the day, Gresham and the cast and crew revise and rehearse portions they feel need improvement. In our interview, they used changes to choreography as an example. During this time after the scheduled practice they also explore alternative ways of performing the characters based on actor and director feedback.
Although there have been frustrations with actualizing the play, such as Galatea’s costume — which was still actively being made at the time of interview — Gresham seemed to be incredibly fond of the director’s chair. The festival is their directorial debut with most of their past theatrical efforts having been as an actor, taking up the role after being approached by fellow director Leigha Fickling. The experience has been, in their words, “really awesome,” and has given them a new perspective on theater production.
“I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy being on this side of the creative process. I love being in charge of things, interpreting things. I love performance as well, but I’ve super enjoyed directing,” Gresham said.
Students can see Gresham’s work reflected in “Galatea,” as well as “Cleanse Yourself” and “I Always Knew It Would End This Way” during the Fall One-Act Festival. Performances will be in the Fir Acres Theatre from October first to third at 7:30 p.m.
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