During the annual Senior Directed One Acts, directors have two weeks to cast and direct a play to be performed in the RMA. This year, the dynamic duo of Jordan Uddin and Emm Fickes Wagaw took to the director’s chair to co-write and direct their original show Lost & Found Department #9, a touching tale of memories and reflection.
Why did you want to do One Acts?
Emm: “I joined theatre tech in my freshman year and I continued doing all parts of tech, including like set building, set designing, stage managing, backstage managing, sound. Lights recently–I never want to again. And I like the people and I like the actors.”
Jordan: “My TA freshman year was a one-acts director, so I kind of got my first little peeksie if it went through her. But I really wanted to do it for the reason of illustrating my, like, writing talents and skills because I don’t get to do that a lot. Specifically…I really like writing screenplays.”
How were you involved in theater before one acts?
Emm: “I’m tech. I spend all my time, I sold my soul, and I don’t leave–I live in the booth!”
Jordan: “Not at the high school, but that was all I wanted to do when I was younger. I was going to theatre. My parents thought it was unrealistic. But I’ve been singing, quote unquote, professionally for…as long as I can remember. It’s always been one of my favorite things for me. Seeing theatre, the heart of watching theatre, I think, is just as impressive as performing.Being able to analyze the showmanship and the techniques that are used on stage I think is really important.”
What did the relationship with other directors look like?
Emm: “It was nice! We made a group chat, I think it was nice to compare what we were each doing because obviously none of us had done it before… It was very friendly and it’s kinda fun to get to know the people.”
Jordan: “Oh, yeah, like Emm said, I think it was all a very amicable relationship. I mean, I think a lot of us knew each other beforehand. And I think, especially, a lot of the other directors were willing to sacrifice something if it meant a better turnout for the group as a whole.”
Why did you write your own play instead of taking an existing one?
Emm: “I really admired the written one-acts, instead of the ones you just, like, pull from… Like Katie-May’s and Kallista’s from last year, Hot to Trot… But, I also really like Jordan’s writing, so I was excited to see what he’d do with it.”
Jordan: “I think it’s a lot easier to connect with the characters and visualize them when you’re the one writing it, not when you just, like, found a random story.”
What considerations were made for casting?
Jordan: “We wanted [actress] for a certain role, because we just love her. But obviously, we had to make sacrifices. We got an actress that was equally as good, but not the one we had originally planned to have. And it worked out! It was a great show, but it was just not what we had originally planned.”
Emm: “But then, actually watching everyone do it, I remember we kept turning to each other and making really happy and surprised faces…And I was on the verge of tears. Now we get to see it come to life! Yes, they’re such great actors and great people. So we were just excited during the entire journey.”
How was directing your cast?
Jordan: “There were a lot of times I felt really, really stressed because I felt a lot of the time we had like a good cop, bad cop dynamic going on and I was the only one being serious. And I didn’t want my children to hate me. [Emm: I wasn’t on my ADHD meds!] But, you know, something I applaud [Emm] for now that I’m looking back at it, trying to make the environment fun.”
Emm: “We’d walk into the Little Theater and somebody would be playing the piano or wrestling on the floor… Everyone’s doing something, but it was so fun and we got to know everyone better, and it’s something I’ll never forget, even if it was, ever-so-slightly, a little bit stressful.”
How did the actors develop the characters you wrote?
Emm: “Well, because like some of the characters, the actors portrayed them exactly like we expected them to. And then some of them was like in complete 180 from how we expected them to.”
Both: “Why did he have a Western accent?!”
Jordan: “[Blake] Spezzano–she did an incredible job. She played the character like, 40 years younger than we had wrote that character… But she did a phenomenal job.”
What was it like on the night of the performance?
Jordan: “I remember when we were out there doing our speech, I like blacked out for a moment and I was looking around and then I see my mom just whip out her phone and her flashlight goes on. And she like, she doesn’t want to turn the video off so she just tries to cover the flashlight with her hand. It’s so funny and I love my mom so much.”
Emm: “It was perfect, it was perfect as it could be. And then I also like, I got to split the time also with tech and with the crew. So I was like, oh, I get to spend time with like, Fleury and Evan and like my senior people, but then also the actors! Getting to spend time with these people is definitely the best part.”
Jordan: “That’s very true.”
