Bearden’s one act Shadow took to the stage at the state one act competition in Smyrna last month.
The students involved in this year’s One Act brought back some impressive achievements. The list includes senior Caroline Alley as “Best Student Director,” senior Addison Pratt recognized as a “Jack of All Trades,” and senior Natalie Newman and junior Tim Hodge both awarded “All Star Cast” members.
To Alley and Pratt, these awards meant something a little different. The two awards they were given were judges choice awards, meaning they are not set to be given out every year. Instead, the judges were inspired by their abilities to create and presented them with special recognitions.
“Every year, the judges give out judges’ choice awards,” Pratt said. “We never know how many or what the categories are. They usually decide after seeing the shows.”
Newman and Hodge were proud of the recognition they received for their standout performances.
“We got an all star cast award, which is an award that they give to two or three…actors that they thought stood out the most in their show, so two of us won that which is amazing,” Newman said.
For the first time in Bearden history, the one act was directed entirely by a student director. Alley took charge of the production without any leadership assistance following the initial casting process.
“Most of the other student directors were directing alongside another director, like more of an assistant, which is where I think I differ because I didn’t do that,” Alley said. “I didn’t have someone else helping me.”
With her new role as director, Alley has found pride in her own accomplishments, but also in the cast she leads.
“I am so proud of my people…the growth that happened from September when we first started, to when we performed was absolutely insane,” Alley said. “[The cast] is applying what I taught them into their roles now, and it makes me really happy and it makes me so proud of them.”
Not only was this student-led dynamic a new experience for Alley, but for the actors as well. The cast says that Alley made rehearsals a fun and productive environment that allowed for them to comfortably collaborate with each other and grow as a group.
“I think it was a great experience, and I think it was a good learning experience in terms of taking initiative,” Pratt said. “I think it was a very useful experience.”
Added Newman: “In some ways, it was really easy for her to communicate with us because she knew exactly how to put things in our terms. I think sometimes you have a struggle with directors because they’re obviously older than you so it’s hard for them to put things in terms that you understand, but we were all on the same page.”
Along with these students’ impressive involvement in the one act, all of them participated in Bearden’s fall musical Legally Blonde. Balancing this high level of involvement can be challenging, but these students say that they have been able to take skills they have learned from the one act and apply them into their performances in Legally Blonde.
“The directing experience has given me a new insight into acting that contributes to my acting and how I perform,” Alley said.
Added Newman: “It was definitely a lot because your rehearsals often times are either stacked on top of each other or one after another, but it was very rewarding.”