Through five performances of five original plays and a song – yes a song – this year’s Festival of One-Acts, titled Don’t Look Down! was brilliant and full of surprises. In ways familiar and new, the students of Shalhevet Drama showed their versatility and talent.
The fact that the festival was scheduled during the Omer proved to be controversial. Junior Danny Silberstein had been asked by drama teacher Ms. Emily Chase to create original music for the plays this year. At the time, no one realized that the performances were scheduled during the Omer – the communal mourning period between Pesach and Shavuot when live music is generally not allowed.
But after much discussion and recognition that the festival’s dates could not be changed, the show was allowed to go on. In an e-mail that went out to the entire Shalhevet community, Judaic Studies Principal Rabbi Ari Leubitz offered viewpoints that would allow for the community to attend, and Danny’s music contributed significantly without upstaging the actors in the performance.
All five plays were written, directed, produced and acted by students with the help of Ms. Chase. Students also received help from professionals Ms. Chase hired. They were Mickey Birnbaum, a playwriting instructor; Leila Crawford, production stage manager; Leigh Allen, lights; Jeff Rack, sets; and Richard Miro, a combat and dialect expert.
P
ie Boom” was the funniest play of the night. Written by senior Deborah Lelah and directed by Leona Fallas, it concerns a princess, played lovably by Rose Bern, who is pampered by no-good gentleman callers on a daily basis. One day her servant, played by sophomore Scotty Silver, opens the door for first a prince, played by senior Adam Sharabi, and then a pirate, played by senior David Fletcher.
As the two men fight for the princess’s love, they engage in a beautifully choreographed comic fight, and ultimately find out that these seeming polar opposites have a lot more in common than they thought. David and Adam’s comedic timing and attention to detail made this play a hit.
Juniors Katie Feld and Esther Levy wrote “Where You Invest Your Love You Invest Your Life,” which was probably the source of the festival’s title, Don’t Look Down! Directed by Ms. Chase, this play tackled deeper and darker themes.
Violet, acted by Rachel Friedman, and Mia, acted by junior Leah Glouberman, are best friends who have just been killed in a fatal car accident. While they are in limbo after death, Joe, played by Rachel Kenner, leads them to flashbacks that show their friendship actually made them hold each other back from many great opportunities. In both flashbacks, junior Brianna Marshak played an adult offering the teens opportunities they had passed up. At the end of the play, the two girls go their separate ways.
Leah and Rachel’s performance was a tear-jerker. Brianna filled her roles with the proper mix of poise and rigidity. Rachel Kenner was able to emphasize her acting skills while adding a little bit of humor to perhaps the saddest play of the evening.
Y
ou Only Live Once” told a story of four teens who are in somewhat of a love “square” – that is, four people instead of three. Written by drama veteran and senior Leona Fallas and directed by junior Rose Bern, this was play was perhaps the most relatable to any high school student. Rachel Friedman played Jane, torn between her overly clingy boyfriend Matthew and an adventurous rebel, Nick.
Jane’s best friend Raquel was played by sophomore Eden Braunstein, who memorably embodied the classic “always there for you” best friend. Matthew was played by freshman David Lorell, who was perfectly casted as this nervous and tenacious character. Senior Adam Sharabi performed his role as Nick with just the right balance of rebellion and romance.
During the blackouts for scene changes in this play, Danny made his debut on an acoustic guitar, strumming a gentle refrain while tapping rhythms with his fingers on the instrument’s wooden face.
Rabbi Leubitz said the calm of the music was one reason it was permitted. The law prohibiting people from listening to music during the Omer originates from Magen Avraham’s rules against dancing, he explained ni his e-mail.
“Some rule that it stands to reason that this derivation applies specifically to joy or dance inducing music, and not to slow and reflective music,” Rabbi Leubitz wrote. He said that all music used in the One-Acts festival, which later included the song “We Are Young” by the indie-pop band Fun – sung by the entire cast at the end of the play – was sufficiently reflective and non-celebratory to qualify.
Those who worried about the Omer anyway, his letter continued, could attend a special performance at 6 pm on Yom Haatzmaut, April 25, timed to end before sundown so it could be part of the celebration of Israeli Independence Day.
”Secret Life” was another first. Here the One-Act festival presented the audience with an original song – written by Danny and sung by him in a duet with Leah Glouberman. Adorned with the back-and-forth smirks between the two singers, the duet was sung beautifully, its lyrics reaching to describe teenage angst — This is my struggle, this is my pain, this is what keeps me from going insane, just sit back and play the game — in a way that was playful and teasing and brought both singers and the audience to giggle.
DOOM!” written by Rachel Kenner and directed by senior Leah Katz, brought the audience into a play that elicited mystery. Four people have hidden in a bunker for an unknown period of time to avoid some unspecified “doom” whose nature is unknown. Sophomore Maya Ben Shushan and David Lorell acted as two young teens in love amidst a world of complete uncertainty.
Sophomore Maya Rosenman memorably played an adventurous punk ready to start her life and leave the bunker. Brianna Marshak was the superior and most knowledgable agent, also the least popular in the bunker because of her overprotective personality. By the end of the play, the reason for her overprotectiveness is revealed to be her love and devotion to her three friends in the bunker.
Maya Ben Shushan and David Lorell’s chemistry on stage seemed very authentic. Brianna managed to maneuver from being the typical annoying control freak to a caring adviser with ease.
The last play of the evening was Rose Bern’s “There’s More Than Meets the Eye.” Directed by junior Naomi Abehsera, the acting in this play shone most brightly. Leona Fallas played Sophia, a girl in love with the wrong guy for the wrong reasons. Celia, her younger sister played by freshman Shoshi Reich, knows that Sophia does not belong with the horrid Daniel, played by David Fletcher. Celia tries to convince her sister that the nicest and truest guy is her best friend Paul, played by Scotty Silver. After having him over one night without her parents’ permission, Celia realizes that Daniel is a no-good, conniving, brute of a man. The play ends off with Paul sitting with Sophia but we are left unsure of the future that they might share.
Leona Fallas did a marvelous job at her role as a big sister who turns from head-over-heals in love to gag-me-with-a-spoon. Scotty Silver’s role as the best friend seemed to come naturally to him, and Shoshi Reich seemed made for her part.
But the most surprising performance might have been David Fletcher’s. Menacing, clueless and rude, “Daniel” was so abhorrent that it was hard to see why Sophia could stand him at all, and anyone who knows David knows this role was no typecasting. In fact, on the last night when seniors were being acknowledged for their final performance as high schoolers, Ms. Chase said it had taken a while for him to gradually be able to learn to be rude because he is too nice.
That’s acting, and in one way or another, all of the performers had reached beyond their day-to-day high school selves. In finding a way to permit live music,, perhaps the administration did too.
