North Central student debuts own original play

North Central College senior Katie Legner is an actor's director.

She recently devoted an entire week of rehearsals for “Under the Circumstances,” a play she wrote and is directing, to a tool designed to help develop actors' movements onstage.

At the beginning of each rehearsal, she prepped actors and let them share their concerns and feedback.

And to continue to develop her own approach, she's immersed herself in every acting class available at the Naperville campus. #8220;She wouldn't stop me if I said a line differently,#8221; said Kyle Ryan, who plays one of the show's lead roles. #8220;She gives a lot of freedoms.#8221;

Legner says that's a necessary strategy for staging her original play that's been emotionally exhausting for her cast.

The show opens at 7:30 p.m. today in the school's Madden Theatre in Wentz Concert Hall. Other performances are slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The script calls for Ryan and Cassie Nelson to establish a strong onstage relationship and then deal with the upheaval when Nelson's character cheats.

While Legner is striving to build a feeling of collaboration, she also knows she can't indulge her actors, or herself, too much.

When she studied abroad in England, she enrolled in a class examining French avant-garde writers who placed restrictions and rules on their writing. Legner knows she has to place a deadline on all that feedback and her own editing, criticizing her stage directions for their level of detail.

#8220;I've had more than one breakdown,#8221; Legner said of writing several scenes.

It's a challenge she really grasped when she worked as an assistant director for Carin Silkaitis, a North Central theater professor who advised Legner for #8220;Under the Circumstances,#8221; one of three original plays in the college's Student Director Series.

As opening night approached for Silkaitis' fall play, Legner handed her a page of notes suggesting revisions to scenes.

It's a challenge constantly torturing artists: when to put the pen and paintbrush down and let viewers admire the work.

#8220;At some point, you just have to let your actors fly,#8221; Silkaitis said. #8220;It empowers them.#8221;

So when Legner started rehearsals for her own play, she let actors experiment with her vision.

#8220;They're here to learn,#8221; she said.

Legner, her cast and their audiences will find out just how well it all came together beginning tonight.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors. They are available at (630) 637-7469 or www.northcentralcollege.edu/showtix. Children younger than 18 cannot attend without parental consent due to strong language and sexual content.

If you go

If you go

What: “Under the Circumstances,” a play in the North Central College Student Director Series

When: 7:30 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday

Where: Madden Theatre in Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville

Cost: $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors.

Info: (630) 637-7469 or www.northcentralcollege.edu/showtix.