The senior project “Red” written and directed by fourth-year theater arts major Ally Liberty premiered in the Power Lines New Play Festival on April 7, in Ives Hall room 119. The festival featured seven other plays, dance programs, and student projects throughout the weekend.

Liberty said this year was not her first time working on senior projects as she was a director in last year’s “Power Lines,” but this was her first opportunity to have complete creative freedom. According to the festival program, the play highlighted the themes of “grief, loss, life and death, mental health and the relationship between mothers and daughters.” 

Liberty understood that in her original project, she was working with so many other collaborators that there would be compromises to make the play work. The concepts of prop use, vocabulary and themes were not entirely up to her but she gained experience and learned how she could make it her own.  When she got the chance to direct and compose her own piece she knew she wanted to take this idea and completely rework it into her senior project. 

Liberty said that jumping from assistant directing to being the director carries a lot more responsibility but Liberty was ready to take this on to create her senior project, “I just started acting 3 years ago so I’m still very new to the whole thing” Liberty said, “I have never done any of the tech side of things.” Liberty said communicating with designers was especially important when working with fake blood in one of the scenes. “you have so many different people working on just that one moment…all of your costume people have to be aware, your tech people have to be aware and your crew has to be able to get it off the stage.” Liberty said. She said this posed a technical challenge, however, she wanted the look of blood to help emphasize the reality of the moment.

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Courtesy | Drew Maldonado