It is the afternoon after the first day of exams and outside, the hallways are a ghost town. Within the computer lab, however, preparations are under way in full force for RM’s One Acts Festival. The cast of the show exhibits the lively ebullience for which RM’s Black Maskers are known, but the girl at the center of it is perfectly serene.
Naomi Park, a junior at RM who has been a part of every show since her freshman year, was tapped this December to direct the short play she wrote, Mole, for this year’s One Act production, a student-run festival of four one act plays.
She will be joined in the showcase by four one acts put on by other directing teams, as well as a light show. But hers stands out for its small cast and the fact that it will be directed by its writer.
The producers of the festival, seniors Will Green and Mattie Cardinale, chose Park to continue the line of excellent student-written one acts. Past authors include notable alum Aaron Hwang, currently enrolled at Yale, who won a student writing award for one of the pair of shows he put on in back to back years, and current seniors Nina Holtz and Audra Jacobs, the latter of whom is a cast member in The Mole. Also in this year’s showcase is Two’s A Pair, written by sophomore Vlady Guttenburg with assistance from senior Leigh Robertson.
Park has earned the respect of her peers by toiling away where others would complain, from drawing nine remarkably detailed posters to advertise Almost, Maine as a freshman, to spending hours inside a giant teacup as Chip Potts in Beauty and the Beast, to most recently giving an impressive performance as a factory girl in Les Miserables, using her solo during a scene key to the plot to showcase a singing voice that is surprisingly strong given her laid-back demeanor.
Park and her cast have routinely impressed any and all observers, including junior Oscar Saywell, a One Acts veteran as well as the assistant producer assigned to supervise their show. Saywell sings his praises of the show, saying “[It is a] brilliant piece of writing…[that is] simultaneously clever, funny and enjoyable to watch.”
In fact, for those observing, it might seem as though Park has developed something of a Midas Touch, raising the quality of everything she touches. The small cast she has assembled for her show turns out a remarkably good performance for a rehearsal following exams.
The chemistry among the five actors is visible as they warm up, clearly as willing to poke fun at themselves as at the show itself. The brilliantly cynical style of the show complements the actors’ styles perfectly, like seniors Audra Jacobs and Aaron Eisenberg’s over-the top personalities. Sophomore Caroline Coffey is cartoonish in a style reminiscent of musical theater’s dramatic style. Courtney Lai, a freshman in her acting debut, and junior Isabel Leiva are refreshing in their traditional protagonist roles.
The quiet demeanor Park displays has established a reliable dynamic in her rehearsals, ensuring that her cast has an excellent understanding of her vision for the show— to the point that it is easy to forget that the show is scripted. The promise of Mole alone is well worth the $5 admission cost for the festival.
