A Wild Ride for Salve Directing Students

By: Elisabeth Steinhardt
Posted In: Entertainment

Sunday, Dec. 14 marked the final exam day for Salve’s directing students as they presented a scene from a play of choice to a kind yet rigid audience of teachers, family members and friends.

This senior-dominated course included Mary Hoadley, Jacqueline Boyle, Stephanie Dupuis, Francesco Nuzzi, and Lindsay Celona, and solo junior, Elizabeth Rossi.

Collectively, these six students put together a production of six scenes from six completely different works. They dedicated their production to their hard-working and dedicated teacher, Dr. Shirley Girard.

As part of the program, senior director Stephanie Dupuis said in the dedication, “In our wild ride through the theatre program at Salve, we have not encountered a teacher who strives to push our limits and test our knowledge quite the same way Dr. Girard has managed to.”

Dupuis directed a scene from the play “A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking,” written by John Ford Noonan. The play is about two women neighbors and their relationship of clashing personalities. One is overbearing and the other just watches things as they unfold.

Dupuis said this was her first time in the director’s shoes. “It was nerve racking,” she said. “We had to prove we learned something.” The project proved to be a good opportunity for the upperclassmen to get a sense of what directing was like, as well as for the underclassmen to get more acting experience. Dupis said she was excited to get to work with “two wonderfully funny and witty actresses (Mary Beth Luzitano and Jessica Kochu) and applauds their patience as she stumbled through her first attempt at the art of directing.”

Dupuis also said she and fellow directors and actors had fun with theatre professor Patricia Hawkridge as she took part in the production as an actor. Mrs. Hawkridge’s fun and contagious personality came out in the dressing as her “diva” side showed.

Dupuis is a double major in Education and Theatre Arts with a minor in English Literature. Next semester she has plans to student-teach theatre courses at Nathaniel Greene Middle School and Classical High School, both in Providence.