Home CHS Drama’s “The Face Is the Place” Wins RI Drama Festival BY Rita Stubbs

CHS Drama’s “The Face Is the Place” Wins RI Drama Festival BY Rita Stubbs

As CHS Drama performs this week at the New England Exposition as the RI delegate, the ENTRY took a few moments to speak to Mr. Wilkinson, CHS drama "sensei" and director of "The Face Is the Place."

CHS Drama’s “The Face Is the Place” Wins RI Drama Festival  IMG_3478

BY Rita Stubbs

As CHS Drama performs this week at the New England Exposition as the RI delegate, the ENTRY took a few moments to speak to Mr. Wilkinson, CHS drama “sensei” and director of “The Face Is the Place.”

Q:  How long have you been directing plays here at the high school? How many festivals have you won before? 

I have directed 34 productions in last 16 years.  Of those, 4 have won the Rhode Island Drama Festival competition.  This last festival was March 11 and 12 at The Prout School in Wakefield

Q: What was your favorite part of directing this show? the experience as a whole? 
My favorite piece of the directing “puzzle” for this production was the challenge of taking this particular one-act play (which writing is very episodic in form with every scene being like a separate “jewel”) and creating a “cord” to bind them together to create a cohesive story-line “necklace”.  My overall favorite part is always the development and growth of my students, the process more than the product in creating artworks of live Theatre.
Q:  What made you want to produce this play so much? 
I very much wanted to do this play as it contains multi-dimensional teen characters dealing with a variety of important and relevant issues.  Like Thoreau, the characters find their own path of peaceful protest and resistance that enacts the change in unacceptable conditions.  And lastly, I appreciated the author’s “voice”, and the opportunity to be the first to produce this play in the United States, which is the third time we have had the great fortune to do that.
Q:  What was the first emotion you felt when winning? What was the competition like? 
My first emotion?  Pride in my team, the ever-growing collective of young artists known as the Drama family.  The competition was multifaceted and a myriad of different genres and styles….though when done right, as this festival was, it does not  feel like a “competition” but rather a huge gathering of talented people each sharing and supporting each other through their individual/group talents and work.  Theatre is not “us vs. them”–it’s “we” and that makes all the difference.  It is a celebration.
Q:  Any other thoughts or things you would like to share? 
I love the theatre, my life’s work, and I love doing it here. I know I am a very lucky man. So now  I move on toward the next project, it might be something very special.
CONGRATS to all of the CHS team.  We are proud of your accomplishments!

 

 

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