On November 13th, Mendham Players revealed this year’s fall drama to their audiences: Arsenic and Old Lace. Set in 1941, this dark comedy tells a tale of how two older women have been committing murder, and how their nephew tries to deal with this information once he finds out (Bard).This production required a lot of hard work from many people, including the cast and crew of the play. However, one group that is often overlooked are the student directors- the people who help build the play from the ground up. They need to be knowledgeable about the play itself, its themes, what acting choices should be made, how the set should be built, and more. They also had to overcome new challenges due to the pandemic, making their job even harder.

This year’s head Student Director was Daniel Hellreighal, a senior, while the Assistant Directors were Elinor Hughes and Lucas Falick, a sophomore and senior respectively. This is the third show Daniel has directed, and the first show for both Lucas and Elinor. Daniel describes the role of the student directors as “the voices of the cast in leadership discussions and a bridge between the teachers who work on the shows with the students.” The student directors are also able to look at the show from a different perspective than the adults involved in the play, which is key considering a lot of the audience for their shows consists of high-schoolers. According to Daniel, some of the tasks the student directors are tasked with are taking attendance, keeping track of the blocking, running the show, and even “troubleshooting and developing props” since there were a variety of props used in this year’s production. Daniel explained how the directors also needed to “coordinat[e] a lot […] and troubleshoot a lot” with the crew, especially the stage manager Sophia Bulanov and the sound technician James Kociancic. This year’s work was even more strenuous due to the current restrictions caused by the COVID pandemic. “Actors were not allowed to touch so it was difficult at the beginning to think of blocking without any touching,” details Elinor. The auditions were also held over Google Meet, which caused some delays in communication. 

However, the student directors take a lot of pride and joy in their work. “I loved the whole process and working with everyone in the cast and crew,” says Elinor. Both her and Daniel’s favorite part of being a director was feeling the buzz in the room before the performances and helping the cast prepare to go on stage. “I also really enjoy that I get to add my own special touch for each show and each performance,” adds Daniel when explaining his most enjoyable experiences as a student director. Despite the struggles they may have faced, this year’s student directors worked incredibly hard to make the Mendham Players’ production of Arsenic and Old Lace as amazing as possible.