Playwriting Students Showcase Their Work in Spring Shorts

5/7/2025

Emerging voices exercised action, character, conflict and dialogue in this year’s annual Spring Shorts in the Experimental Theater this past weekend.

Under the guidance of upper school theater teacher Beth Manspizer, upper school playwriting students showcased their work with nearly 20 students participating in the five one-act plays as actors, writers, directors and technicians.

“All the plays were written in our playwriting class,” Manspizer said. “It is wonderful to see them go from early ideas, read and worked on in class, to a directed production. Our student directors did an outstanding job, guiding their casts and bringing these stories to life.”

Lucy Vargas ’26 directed “Train to the End,” written by Jovelysa Molina ’26, which Vargas described as “two people who find themselves stuck on a train, a purgatory of sorts, as they try to retroactively understand their life experiences and what life is really about.”

For Vargas, the experience was a positive one. “I got to enact my own vision of a script that one of my best friends wrote,” she said. “It was exercising a different 'acting' muscle that I didn't know that I had.”

Raven Jarvis ’27 acted in three of the five plays and encountered a few creative challenges. “Making sure that one character's personality didn't seep into another's on stage was a huge point of focus for me,” Jarvis said. “Playing Bethany, a fame-starved influencer, ten minutes after Mrs. Johnson, a neglected housewife, was a major switch in mentality.”

Meanwhile, Dylan Glaser ’25, who portrayed James Smith in “Written in Blood,” relished the role. “I enjoyed playing a psychopathic character with no morals,” he shared with a chuckle. “I have never acted before this, and it's something I would definitely do again.”

Spring Shorts 2025
“Written in Blood”
Written by Ayalah Spratt '26
Directed by Lorelei Gary '26

“Train to the End”
Written by Jovelysa Molina '26
Directed by Lucy Vargas '26

“Dinner at a Chinese Restaurant”
Written by Skye Pearlman '25
Directed by Ross Manzano '26

“Biosphere 3”
Written by Gemma Gilmartin '27
Directed by Jovelysa Molina '26

“The Liminal”
Written by Emerson Riter '25
Directed by Alexander Cooperstock '25