Student Blog: How I Got to Direct My Dream Show

The weekend before Sophomore year of college in 2022, I was invited to see the Into The Woods revival on Broadway with a few of my friends. On the bus ride there, my friends James Maloney and Adeleke Goring told me about a new student organization that is doing student-run musicals called BYFY and that they were going to be on the E-Board. Directing a musical was my dream and from that point forward, I would stop at nothing to direct a BYFY musical before I graduate. So, I participated in BYFY in any way that I could. I house-managed, ushered, did hair and makeup, even flew back to Philly from North Carolina after my brother’s graduation to see BYFY’s Godspell. In the Spring of my junior year, I was playing Betty Blast in BYFY’s Footloose when the applications for next season came out. This was it— I had to do it and do it right.

When applying to direct, we had to propose which musical we wanted BYFY to produce. Temple Theaters announced that they would be doing A Chorus Line as their fall musical, so I wanted to choose something that would contrast with A Chorus Line. I also looked back at BYFY’s previous shows and noticed that they have never done a musical that was focused on women’s stories. This passion for women’s stories was not new for me or for BYFY however, as I directed a cabaret for Women’s History Month last year called Muses also produced by BYFY. It finally hit me— I called my mom to tell her that I was going to submit to direct Little Women, a musical of which I love and was familiar with because it was also my senior year musical in high school. I had a meeting with the E-Board to pitch my idea to them and I decided to make a proposal presentation including a vision board and a synopsis of the show. In late May, I got an email telling me that my show was chosen. I did it. I put my dreams into motion.

I spent the summer preparing as much as I could. I made the entire rehearsal schedule up until the show was completely learned and prepared all the audition and callback material. I also worked on finding the rest of my creative team. Once that was all set, I continued to think about my vision for the show. I talked with some of my mentors about my ideas for the show and how I could best execute them with the budget that we have. After the first week of classes, it was time for auditions. We did an open call on Saturday, callbacks on Sunday, and released the cast list on Monday with rehearsals starting that Wednesday. From that point on we rehearsed Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the rest of the semester.

 Table work is something that is important to me as a director, especially on a show like Little Women, a piece of literature that has had many different adaptations and has a large fan base of college students because of the 2019 Greta Gerwig-directed film. During the table work, I got a clearer sense of everyone’s familiarity with the story, which informed how I was going to help each actor get the most from their character. It was such a privilege to be able to work with this small cast because by the end of the process, we had such a great bond. Many of the scenes in this musical focus on only a few characters at a time, so we were able to take lots of time to flesh them out and really be specific about the acting. We spent lots of time working on pacing, allowing an appropriate amount of reaction time but also keeping the action alive and the energy up. This show does not have any large dance numbers, so it can be difficult to keep the audience engaged, but my cast did a wonderful job. Another element that I added to make my production high energy was stage combat. In Little Women, Act 1 and 2 both begin with Jo reading her story, involving a high-energy sword fight. I made a conscious effort not to watch other productions of Little Women so they did not conflict with my creative vision, but from what I had seen, most productions do not do real sword fighting. I asked my classmate and friend Finn Powers to be our fight director and they directed a beautiful single sword fight sequence for our ensemble members who played the story characters. This added an element of allure to bring the audience back in after intermission. I wanted to feel both interesting and easy for audiences to watch and to follow. 

The show ran the first weekend of December and I have never felt more accomplished. I have participated in theater in many different ways, from acting to running props to ushering to being a patron, but directing has to be where I feel the most at home. Being able to curate this creative experience beginning with an idea and manifesting in a beautiful performance is the most rewarding experience. I could not have asked for a better show and I can’t wait to keep following my dreams.