by Lola Furbee
The North Central College Theatre Department started the new year off strong with their first production of the semester, The 39 Steps, a comedic stage play based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name. I had the immense privilege to be the Assistant Director for this play, working with Director and NCC Theatre professor Dr. John Warrick. Seeing as my position might be a bit of a bias, I’m not writing a review for The 39 Steps. Rather, I’d like to dive into my experience directing a piece for the first time and what it was like collaborating with a team of experts.
You may or may not recall that Theatre: Directing and Dramaturgy Track is one of the majors I’m pursuing at NCC. Originally, I was only aiming for a minor in Theatre, but after reviewing my credits and with a little peer pressure from one of my friends (not really), I decided to tack on an official major last semester. Directing has always been something I’ve been interested in exploring, but for some reason I never considered that it could be a real possibility for me. I also never expected that I would get the chance to direct so soon after initially picking up the major.
I definitely started the process with some confusion, a lot of questions, and a healthy dose of imposter syndrome. Not only did I have little to no grasp as to how to direct a play, I had no idea as to what the process was going to look like at NCC. Even more, my first time properly meeting Dr. Warrick had been just a week before I was added to The 39 Steps team, so I really had zero concept as to what the next six weeks of rehearsal were going to look like. There was also a level of trepidation around the fact that this would be the first NCC production I would be a part of that wasn’t under the Storefront Series.
Storefront Series is NCC Theatre Department’s unique course that students will pursue for their senior year. The class is often used as a capstone experience for Directing and Dramaturgy Track majors, giving students the chance to conceive a fully staged theatrical production with faculty supervision. My two former credits at NCC had conveniently fallen under the Storefront Series productions. I’d become so used to working with a creative team that consisted entirely of students that I was unsure what to expect for my first time working with proper professionals.
Now that I’ve gone through the process and closed up the show this past Sunday, I can say with confidence that I really had nothing to worry about. The support I received from The 39 Steps team was like no other. From the cast and the crew to the management team, truly everyone involved in this process helped ease all of the nerves I had going into it. It was always a great feeling when an actor followed a note I gave them, and I was constantly joking around with my stage manager during our breaks.
Dr. Warrick was the most crucial support of all. Not only was he the director I was working under for this production, but he’s also one of my primary professors at NCC. He provided a great model for some of the most basic directing skills, like stage blocking and forming opinions on design elements. More than that, though, he did a great job of showing me that the smallest details are often what lead to creating a better and bigger picture. A subtle note he would give to an actor or the slight shift in lighting for a particular scene, whatever it was, helped me understand the nuances that create the difference between a good director and a great director.
I couldn’t have imagined a better show or a better team to work with for my first ever directing exploit. The humorous aspect of The 39 Steps made every rehearsal a blast and it was so cool to witness the first-hand process of each scene progressing from rehearsal to rehearsal. The 39 Steps was a great starting point for my directorial experience, and I can’t wait to see how I can expand on these skills throughout my time at NCC.
