BTHS students will perform a total of 18 plays
The Burlington Township High School Theater Department will present a Festival of New Plays on four nights beginning on Saturday, Nov. 19 at the Burlington Township Performing Arts Center.
The 18 original plays to be performed will take course over two nights. Program A will have performances on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Friday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Program B will have performances on Sunday, Nov. 20 at 2:30 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. Director of Theater and Cinema Studies Joseph M. Farina is directing the festival.
Actors, directors and writers have been working on the plays for months. Most writers submitted their plays to Farina before the school year even started.
There are many unique things about the Festival of New Plays, but perhaps the most remarkable aspect is all are written by either current students or BTHS alumni.
In addition to writing their own plays for the festival, seniors Halie Daniels, Liam Giberson, Stacey Teach and Faith Reinhardt will also be directing and acting in various plays as well.
“I have so much pride in our program for doing this. It’s not something you see anywhere else,” Teach said.
Teach’s play is a comedy about a pizza shop that parallels her own life.
After the students write their plays, they must hand them off to a different director. This is something with which Teach, along with the other seniors, struggled.
“It’s definitely a roller coaster of emotions,” Teach said. “When you write something and you know it’s going to be performed, it becomes your baby. It’s hard to hand it off.”
Giberson wholeheartedly agreed.
“When writing a piece, the characters become a part of you. At some point, you have to let them go,” Giberson said. “It’s really hard to hand those characters off to someone and let them do with it what they will.”
Giberson’s play is a more serious, two-person piece on drug addiction — an issue that has affected the entire country.
Giberson also spoke on feeling as though he has a family within the theater program. “Families are imperfect, and we have our struggles. But there’s always an opening night. In the end, we have each other’s backs,” he said.
This is the third year the theater department is doing a festival of all original work. Farina says the program prides itself on being a national model for the arts, and wanted to do something different.
The transition to performing all original plays didn’t happen overnight. It began with a mix of original work and traditional plays, and eventually turned into a festival of plays written entirely by students and alumni of Burlington Township.
Farina feels having both students and alumni write plays is a great way to connect current students with former students. While many graduates are writing from their current locations such as Chicago and New York City, some do come back to see the plays.
Each of the 18 plays lasts approximately 10 minutes. While all high school theater department students can be involved and get a part in a play, only the seniors can write. This becomes something the students look forward to from the time they’re freshmen.
One of the senior writers, Halie Daniels, originally didn’t make the theater program when she tried out in sixth grade, but she didn’t give up. She joined stage crew and kept trying until she made it. Since then, theater has shaped the person she is today.
“People on the soccer team and football team think you just get up on stage and read lines,” Daniels said. “There is so much more work that goes into it. Some people can’t even talk to people anymore. It’s little things like that that you learn from theater.”
All members of the community are encouraged to see the plays. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and free for Burlington Township seniors with a gold card. Tickets can be purchased online at www.burltwpsch.org/hs.php or by calling (609) 699–4024.
Faith Reinhardt, who wrote two plays for the festival, says she thinks the community should use the theater as a way to let out their emotions.
“The theater gives everybody the opportunity to let out emotion, whatever you’re feeling,” Reinhardt said. “That’s one of the most powerful things in the world — to get someone to feel. You can feel sad, you can start crying, you can burst out laughing, and that’s totally fine. That’s what the theater is for.”
