Anita Dupratt, chair of the performing arts department, explained the process that all senior theatre majors participate in for their senior project, the equivalent of senior seminar for other majors. The two-quarter project starts with the negotiation for a faculty mentor. Together, the mentor and the student select material to be performed. Background research includes biographical information of the playwright, as well as published production reviews of prior performances of the selected piece. The student completes the research phase by analyzing the script and performing character analyses.
Rehearsals span the second quarter, and the final presentation is before an audience.
He performed the piece seated behind a table, his only prop a small tape recorder. The audience soon learns that Tom is in police custody for an unnamed crime, assumed to be the murderer of his lover, Johnny. Pratt, a Bakersfield native from South High, will finish his coursework in the fall quarter. Other theatre students were among the audience Friday night. Jason Blackmon, a second-year student with a double major in theatre and in English, watched the performance with the knowledge that he, too, will select and perform material for his senior project in the future.