This year’s fall drama was the original play Julien written by playwright Ryan Drake. The show was performed on October 22nd and 23rd on the quad. The faculty crew includes director and costume designer Clare Mottola, scenic design and technical director Danny Viola and lighting designer Deb St. Onge McMahon. Various students composed the original score, designed the costumes, assistant directed, stage managed, choreographed and starred in the show. Additionally, stagecraft, technical theater lab and theater design students worked backstage to assist in the production of this special performance.
Julien is a play about a place called “Fieldston” in fall 2021; as a result it has both a familiar and uncomfortable feeling, and, as reality is bent, it takes on a universal feeling. The show begins on the first week of school when a group of students on this year’s Halloween Parade Planning Committee meet for the first time since their former club leader was expelled for an unspecified racist incident. Throughout the play, the members of the club wrestle with their feelings surrounding Julien’s racist actions while the school starts to be haunted. Later in the show it is revealed that an alive Julien is actually doing the haunting.
The drama department worked closely with Ryan Drake to create this play. Drake is a queer playwright and filmmaker who graduated from Kenyon college in 2014 and has an MFA in playwriting from Hunter College. Drake won the James E. Michael Playwriting Prize for his past works. Now, Drake lives in Brooklyn, NY and was one of the five writers that were commissioned to write material for the Zoom drama performances that took place during the 2020-2021 school year. Theater and Dance Chair Clare Mottola then contacted Drake over the summer to ask him if he would write something new for the fall drama performance. First, Drake came up with the Halloween parade idea on his own. Then, Drake engaged students in revising his original draft of the play. Drake also interviewed Fieldston students from various walks of life while working on the script. The students were asked various questions about their personal experiences at Fieldston and the general student life on campus. In the end, all of the Julien cast and crew members were majorly involved in the creation of the story.
The Fieldston drama department typically puts on five shows a year. Two of these shows are performed in the auditorium, directed by an adult and are previewed during Upper School assemblies. Out of these two big productions, one is a play that is performed in the fall and the other is a musical that is performed in the spring. The other three shows are smaller, performed in the Alex Cohen Theater and are directed by a student.
When selecting a show, the drama department makes sure that they either choose a newer piece of work or choose a classic and then interrogate it. The drama teachers further explore classical works to ensure that the show’s racial and gender politics reflect Fieldston’s values. Often, the Upper School drama program has put on shows that have gone from Broadway or Off-Broadway straight to Fieldston. No matter what type of show the drama department ends up picking, they always ask themselves the question, “Why does this performance matter right now?”
When discussing the show selection process, Mottola said: “We want to make sure that we are choosing material that is progressively challenging our students. We like to think about how we are growing our students with the material we are choosing. We want to stretch our students, grow our students. We want them to move up a level each year. We think really carefully about why we are doing a play at this moment in time. “
Mottola and Interim Head of School Kyle Wilkie-Glass made the decision to have this year’s fall drama on the quad for COVID-19 safety reasons. Mottola took this as an opportunity to truly bring the space to life. The performance took place on the cement pathway through the quad and the 500s building was used as a backdrop. Because the performance was outside, the fall drama was performed about three weeks earlier than usual so that there would be warmer weather conditions. In addition to hosting the show outside, all audience members had to RSVP to ensure COVID-19 safety. The RSVP procedure made contract tracing possible if necessary. Initially, Mottola was worried that the show would not bring out a large audience due to it taking place outside. Luckily, Mottola was wrong: a few hundred people RSVP-ed to see the show on both nights.
The entire Fieldston drama community was incredibly excited to finally put on an in-person show again since last year, all of the performances were virtual. The plan is that the winter show Athena, directed by Sophie David (VI), will be performed in the Alex Cohen Theater with the audience masked and at limited capacity. The preparations for the winter drama start in two weeks with a preliminary meeting. The drama program faculty and students cannot wait for Athena, coming February 2022!
Playwright Ryan Drake (photo credits: Clare Mottola’s schoolwide email)
