The Niles North Theatre Department’s Play Production class put on their student-produced and written one-act show, entitled The Sins We Created on April 28 and 29. The Seven Deadly Sins inspired this year’s show. Each one-act consisted of themes of the different sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth.

Play Production is a course that allows students to write, cast, direct, manage, design and stage their own one-act plays. The Sins We Created play was a combination of six student-written one-act plays, each one-act running about 10-15 minutes. The play was structured to be similar to a Saturday Night Live sketch, with recurring jokes and a strong opening and closing act. 

Fine Arts teacher Megan Baskin teaches the Play Production class and guided them through the process of creating the show. 

“It’s really about facilitating the creative process and overseeing the things that they needed to do and making sure that they all were communicating with each other,” Baskin said. “It’s about managing all of their scripts, all of their casts, making sure being [there to be] the point person if they needed help or support… [Students] would put together a formal presentation and I would talk to them about how to do that so that if they go into this in the future, they’ve had some experience doing that design work, then they presented the design.”

Though Baskin leads the class, students have a large responsibility in putting the show together as an ensemble and working through creative differences. 

“When I think of a class like this, if everyone had the same opinion, it would be the easiest but most boring class to teach. This is the exact opposite,” Fine and Applied Arts director Andy Sinclair said. “This is a room full of people with very distinct artistic opinions that often differ from their classmates. So the process sometimes took longer than maybe it would have in other classes but the product and discussion and creativity that came out of that, it’s putting people at the top of their game, they’re challenging each other.”

The show consisted of various comedic and dramatic scenes. From envious Hollywood stars to burglaries and murder mysteries to The Bachelorette– the range of the show was broad, with many opportunities to showcase each playwright’s creativity. Even though each show was distinct from the last, they had one thing in common: someone died in the end. The cast joked themselves in the finale saying, they don’t call them the Seven Deadly Sins for nothing. 

The show met a slight stopping point when they were faced with some creative challenges. Because of the circumstances, production was postponed on Friday night, and resumed on Saturday with an additional 3pm show. 

“Our students are motivated, powerful, passionate and they care about doing good work representing themselves in each other,” Baskin said. “Being there for each other, both as people and artists. I was really proud of how even in a difficult situation, everybody got a chance to, I think, feel a sense of community with someone and then with a whole, even when things were challenging.”

Senior Antonio Ortiz enjoyed his time as a director.

“I would say that people, working with people, was really fun,” Ortiz said. “Nic, my co-director was one of my best friends. And I just loved working with him. I also had a really fun [cast], we barely got stuff done because we were laughing too much.”

This show was sophomore Nicolas Craciun’s first time as a director and head lighting designer. Craciun reflects on what he learned overall from the production. 

“[I learned that] I need to make a decision and stick with it,” Craciun said. “Because so many things change. So many people want to push you around because they don’t know that [a choice is] bad, necessarily. It’s just easiest for them. And knowing what you want, that’s most important in designing and directing. Just being able to tell someone, ‘Hey, this is my vision.’”

Because it’s just a sample of what it’s like to be on stage, one-act plays are a great way for those new to acting. Often, students who are relatively new to the theatre department or to acting are perfect for this taste of theatre. 

Junior Zakiah Traxler is usually a part of stage crew but auditioned for the show and was cast.

“I had a great time. I think that it seems really nerve-wracking to audition for things or be an actor, but honestly, it was an amazing experience,” Traxler said. “And as someone who has never really acted before, it’s definitely worth it to at least try it out.”

Perfection is not the goal in this class, progress is. 

“My favorite part about this class is that it shines a spotlight on how messy it is to put together new theatre. Every other thing we ever do comes packaged already…” Sinclair said. ”We got an audience, but we have no idea with what starts on a student’s laptop, where it’s going to end up, and how it goes.  That’s my favorite [part] but also the most stressful part of a class like this because what happens, an audience will never know. The drafts and evolution, that something came through. They’ll just make a judgment on what they saw. That’s a lot of pressure, but it’s also really cool that students get that experience before they go into college. Knowing that creating new theatre is both exciting and terrifying.”

The Play Production class alternates with the Directing class every year. If you are interested in taking Directing, talk to your counselor. Check out the Callboard in the Theatre hallway to learn more about getting involved.