“Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.” – Terrence Mann

It’s 15 minutes before the house lights go off and I introduce the play. As always, The Black Keys is playing over the speakers. This loosens me up a bit but at this point, nothing can stop my stresses levels from being through the roof. About 130 people are in the room, which is well over the average turn out. Dr. Easterling gives me the nod to begin. I give the actors a quick pep talk and get up on stage. This is when I give up all of my control.

This is my second year taking the Dramatic Performance class at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. I took it during my junior year and loved it so much that I decided to take it again. The production of Lockdown was the second play I have directed here. This class has taught me that I absolutely love directing theatre plays.

Directing theatre plays is vastly different from directing short films. With short films, every day is crucial because a piece from each day of filming will show up in the final project. In theatre plays, every day is crucial, but the importance of each day is an exponential curve until the performance day.

I think that is one of the most interesting things about directing a theatre play. Throughout casting and rehearsals, as the director, you have control. You have the time over the blocking, timing, and lighting, etc. The one time you give up your control is the most important time: the performance.

When I got up on stage last Wednesday to introduce the play that we had been working on for the past few weeks, I was incredibly nervous. There were 130 people looking at me, soon to be looking at the actors, expecting us to deliver and to deliver well. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Lockdown.” I hopped off stage and started recording the performance on my camera. Everything that happened for the next 30 minutes was not up to me, it was up to the people on stage. I could not have a better group to give up my control to.