Above, Senior Show director Emma Conroy helps senior Hannah Kravetz edit her script. On February 28, Sammy Keating caught up with Conroy to see how the process of Senior Show is going. [/caption]

WSPN’s Sammy Keating caught up with one of this year’s Senior Show directors, Emma Conroy, to discuss how the show is going so far.

Why did you want to be one of the directors?

I knew I wanted to be involved in the Senior Show in some way. It looked like a really fun way to bring the senior class together. In September and October, people started mentioning to me that I would be a good candidate for director because I had a background in theater, but I wasn’t the stereotypical “dramie” director. I also knew a lot of people in our grade, and I wasn’t in any kind of clique, so I was kind of free of stereotypes. I thought that it was a good point, and it was something that I would like to do because I’m a senior, and I would like to be in this position, and I wanted to make sure it was a good Senior Show.

What are your duties as director?

Editing the scripts, making sure all the scripts are everything they need to be, running rehearsals, casting, planning rehearsals with Laura [Stavisky], making sure everything goes smoothly, props, costumes, staging, telling Paul [Crisafulli] what the lighting is going to be, checking with teachers about mentioning them in the show and just running the show as a whole.

Oh my goodness, how are you not dead yet?

[Laughs] I’m pretty dead this week.

How do you think the senior show has gone so far?

We’re a lot farther ahead than they were [at this point] in past years. I think we’re in really good shape. I hope that it’ll be a fun show to watch and a fun show to put on. I think that we have more time than they had last year. In the dress rehearsal last year they didn’t know what they were doing, so I’m pretty optimistic about it.

What has been the most unexpected thing about directing so far?

I guess how there was a long period of no work, and then all the work hit [Rex Provost and me] at once. The beginning of this week was crazy, just the sheer amount of people that are texting me saying stuff like, “I’m not in the Facebook group but I want to be part of the Senior Show,” “I don’t have a Facebook, but I want to be part of the Senior Show,” “Is it too late to be part of the Senior Show?” “I want a new part,” “I don’t like my part,” “I can’t be at this rehearsal, can I still be in the skit?” “Can I switch my part?” “I want a bigger speaking role,” “Why am I only in one skit?” So just dealing with all the individual requests was expected, but I didn’t realize they would all happen at once.

What has been the most difficult part?

I think dealing with individuals and trying to make sure everyone is happy with their part in the show. People are still coming up to us with new ideas to put in the show and I’m like, “Yeah, if you give me a complete script, I can look at it, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

What is this year’s theme?

[Laughs] So, we’re playing on the idea of our grade’s disunity, and a couple of the skits are what we all do on Saturday nights. We have a good one of David Dines, and we have a bonfire in there somewhere. But the point is that our grade is — not apathetic but that we don’t have the same spirit and unification that other grades have had, but we come together for the show at the end.

Did you write any of of the skits?

Yes, if you remember two years ago, they did a video called, “Stuff Freshmen Say,” so I wrote one that was, “Stuff Seniors Don’t Say,” and it’s going to be another video of those skits.

What was something that you personally wanted to bring to this year’s Senior Show?

I just want everyone to feel like the show was fair and for everyone to be excited and satisfied with it, and I want to help make that happen.

What was the casting process like?

Rex, Laura, and I first looked at the skits and thought about who would bring the best energy to each role to make them as funny as possible, but we tried to make sure to get as many people as possible in the skits. We would have a person in a role and then say, “Oh, we’ve already used them in another skit, so we should put someone else here.” We’ve tried to give as many people as we could something to say. Everyone will obviously get stage time. We first tried to cast who would be best in each role and then tried to get as many people roles as possible. We did give a little bit of precedence to the people who wrote the skits, and hopefully we’ll have the writers in the program, which is something we haven’t had in past years, so that the writers get some acknowledgement.

What are you most looking forward to in the show?

I’m most looking forward to watching the show and how it all comes together.