Meet the directors

Meet+the+directors

Angela White '17, Patriot staff writer

Directing a comedy show with over 100 students might seem easy to an outsider. But working every day for a year and devoting hours of your time each day to a play, and still making time for other activities, friends, and family is an extremely difficult task. But for Marissa LaSalle’ 17 and Elena LeVan’ 17, they exceeded all expectations, and put on an amazing show.

On January 5th and 6th 2017, Senior Directed Cabaret, or SDC, took place at Washington Township High School. Senior Directed is a comedy show directed by two seniors to raise money for Project Graduation. The directors, LaSalle and LeVan, were voted to be directors on January 7th, 2016 by the cast of last year’s show.

The planning for LaSalle and LeVan started the day they found out they were directors. They started looking up SNL skits, comedy shows, and YouTube videos. For the first few months of 2016, LaSalle and LeVan kept in touch almost every day to brainstorm ideas for the show, but the real planning didn’t start until around summer and fall of 2016. They spent every single day together, planning and brainstorming for the show. Once the auditions started in November, they spent 5-6 hours every day 100% dedicated for the show.

Though this was a difficult task, LaSalle and LeVan were up for the job.

LeVan started doing plays in 8th grade and was heavily influenced by her dad, who did theater in high school and participates in the community theater. Elena auditioned for senior directed as a freshman because she was interested in theater and she knew the directors of the show that year, Ally Roselli’14  and Dylan Lamb’14. Since then, she has been in Senior Directed every year of high school. Besides SDC, LeVan has been in other plays such as Shrek the Musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, Wizard of Oz, Snow White, Get Smart, Grease, Our Town, Murders in the Air, Beauty in the Beast, Footloose, Les Miserables, and Mary Poppins.

“I just love the environment of theater and being around people that aren’t afraid to get up on stage. I love the energy it gives you,” LeVan says.

LeVan also participates in many different school activities. She’s in student council, mock trial, vice president of tri-m, theater, president of chorale, national honor society, and played violin in orchestra for 2 years of high school. Along with all these clubs, she has five AP classes this year. Balancing clubs, school, family, personal time has been difficult for LeVan, but she made it work.

“I don’t know how I made time. In the beginning when I was planning SDC, it wasn’t much of a commitment. But as the show got closer and I focused more on it, it was stressful. One time I pulled an all-nighter and went to school on time, and somehow kept my grades up,” LeVan says.

This summer LeVan is helping direct a play for Broadway Pitman, where she used to perform when she was younger. She is unsure where she wants to go to college, but she plans to major in psychology.

LaSalle was in 7th grade when she first watched Senior Directed. Her brother, Tom LaSalle’15, was in the show. She auditioned for SDC as a freshman, and stuck with it every year. Her brother was the director in 2015 when LaSalle was a sophomore. If it wasn’t for her broth
er, LaSalle doesn’t think she would’ve ever done SDC.

“I stuck with Senior Directed every year because I met so many new and different people and made a lot of new friends,” LaSalle says.

Besides Senior Directed, the only other theater experience LaSalle had was a small part in the musical, Beauty and the Beast, when she was a sophomore. She didn’t try out for another musical because she enjoys comedy more than serious theater, and likes to hear people laugh.

LaSalle is also part of many clubs and activities. She is treasurer and a member of student council, national honor society, volleyball, and plays viola in the orchestra. Because she had to dedicate so much time to senior directed, she had to quit volleyball outside of school and stop taking viola lessons.

When LaSalle graduates, she plans to go to college to become an occupational therapist. She always wanted to help kids with special needs, and will get some experience doing so this year with Tomorrow’s Teachers. She hasn’t committed to a school yet, but her top three schools are Lehigh University, William and Mary, and Boston College.

Directing had a lot of ups and downs for both LaSalle and LeVan. Besides having to sacrifice clubs and other activities, and giving up almost all of their free time, that wasn’t that most frustrating part. It was difficult for LaSalle and LeVan to get everyone to listen to them all the time. Some people wouldn’t show up to rehearsals, others would quit and not tell them. It was hard to keep track of everyone 24/7.

“The hardest part of directing was trying to be everyone’s friend and also trying to be their director. It was difficult to balance being in charge and trying to get a million things done but also making it a fun environment for everyone,” LeVan said.

LaSalle and LeVan learned a lot from directing. LeVan has learned to be more outgoing and more willing to talk to new people. She isn’t afraid to yell and be in charge. And even though being in charge isn’t easy, it’s important to have fun when you’re stressed.

LaSalle is less nervous to talk in big groups and to public speak because she’s had to do it so many times. She also learned that it’s okay to step up and be in charge and take things into your own hands sometimes.

“Even though I don’t like to yell or be mean sometimes you just have to be straight up with people in order to get things done,” LaSalle said.

But despite the hardships through this experience, both LaSalle and LeVan loved every second of it, even the all-nighters, the yelling and the stress. LaSalle and LeVan also said their favorite part of SDC was seeing the show finally all come together and being surrounded by positivity.

As the closing of 2017 Senior Directed came to a close, the directors for the 2018 Senior Directed was announced to be Janel Weeks and Josh Loomis

“Senior Directed to me, represents my biggest accomplishment in high school. I met most of m
y friend through this show and everyone has their own different experience. It means so much to me,” said LaSalle.

“SDC shows how hard work pays off. Marissa and I worked so hard for long. Knowing that Marissa and
I were able to create the environment where people can come together is amazing. Hearing people say “thank you” to us when the show ended meant so much to us. It was a huge responsibility, but it was all w
orth it in the end,” LeVan said.