Loyola theater department’s students are putting their four years of education to practical use through their senior project.

In the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, students are given four choices for their senior project/thesis. Students can choose to write a short one-act play, design some aspect of a main stage show, write and present a thesis or direct a one-act play.

This semester, the majority of the seniors in the department chose to direct.

“I always kind of knew I would want to direct,” theatre arts senior and one-act director, Allison Bandera, said.

The faculty and staff agree that directing is one of the most challenging things to teach, but it is one of their favorite projects for seniors.

“My favorite part of the directing projects is seeing all the blood, sweat and tears come together on opening night,” Charles Patrick Gendusa, extraordinary faculty in the department of theatre arts and dance, said.

As opening night of the one-act festival draws near, many of the seniors are beginning to feel the pressure.

“I am fine right now; it is only when I stop moving or have time to myself that my thoughts go off and I begin to panic about all the things that need to be done,” theatre arts senior and one-act director, Sam Morel said.

Allison Bandera said student directing is no small feat – seniors learn on the job what is needed to create a production.

While there are challenges for student directors once the rehearsal process begins, there are just as many challenges prior to casting and the first rehearsal.

“Choosing my one-act was probably one of the hardest parts for me. I have read a lot of full length shows over the last four years but not a ton of one-acts, so the process of finding one was challenging because I really didn’t even know where to begin. I went to libraries, Googled, went to bookstores until I accidentally found my show,” Morel said.

Like other seniors with thesis projects, papers and capstones, the theatre arts seniors have been working on their projects for an extensive period of time.

“We had our first project meeting this time last year, and worked with our adviser through the end of the semester. Over the summer we were all working on finding a play and developing our extensive proposal, which outlined every aspect of the project,” Morel said. “The first draft of our proposal was due early last fall and we have been working since then. We didn’t actually cast our shows and start rehearsals until approximately two weeks before Mardi Gras.”

Despite the challenges, students and staff agree that the projects are a great way to apply four years of education.

The one-act shows will run March 29-30 and April 2-3 in the Lower Depths Theater.

Lauren Patton can be reached at [email protected]