Getting to tell your friends what to do is an opportunity we all relish when we're 7 years old on the monkey bars. When you're in high school and there's a show involved, it becomes a bit more delicate.
"In past years, that's been a huge problem, because student directors will lose the respect of their cast and crew, because they don't really know how to be respectful with power," said Alyssa Franchetti, first-time director of this weekend's production of "Night of the Living Dead" at Lincoln High School in Stockton.
"I knew I wanted to direct since freshman year, because the student shows are so good. It's hard to believe a student really does it," said Franchetti, 17, who has been involved as both cast and crew in more than a dozen Lincoln High shows since her freshman year.
Franchetti found what she felt would be the "perfect script" two years ago in "Night of the Living Dead," an all-inclusive show where any student actors not cast as leads could be cast as flesh-devouring zombies. But it was recently sitting in the director's chair for the first time where she's learned to walk the tightrope.
"People have been very supportive of what I'm doing, and I feel like I've done a good job with being a leader and being a friend. I'm not going to let people get away with missing deadlines, but I'm not going to belittle people" Franchetti said.
"She's really laid back and really personable with everyone; I think she's handled everything well," said cast member Erin Halligan, 16. "She sets deadlines, and she meets them, and she sets them for herself. She has a good balance between directing and being a class member and being a friend."
Somewhat a Jane-of-all-trades, Franchetti has hardly been living in a bubble as director of "Night of the Living Dead." She cut the hair of many cast members herself and tailored the makeup to give the zombies a stylized 1950s look, right down to the fake blood.
She also did all the intense lighting design for the show herself and was instrumental in the custom costume designs for the show. The graduating senior will be doing much of the same (theoretically without the blood) when she leaves Stockton in the fall to study at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
"Eventually I want to be a buyer or, like, a brand manager," she said. "I do design and make clothes, but that's not what I'm majoring in, because I don't want to get an art degree for something I already do well."
While she idolizes and hopes to intern with Patricia Field, costume designer and stylist for TV and films such as "Sex and the City," "Ugly Betty" and "The Devil Wears Prada," this weekend's show will hardly be Franchetti's last time directing. She has plans to make a short film called "300! Points" about a high school outcast who makes it his lifelong goal to bowl a perfect game.
A native of Maine who moved to Stockton with her family when she was in eighth grade, Franchetti is looking forward to returning to her East Coast roots.
"There's no other place I want to be," Franchetti said. "A lot of people go to their 'plan B' and stay home and talk about going to a bigger school in two years - that's not me."
((I just find it cool a girl her age would take on Night as a stage production for a high school drama group, and then such a massive amount of the work herself. I love the detail she is paying to hair cuts and costumes and her emphasis on lighting which would be key to setting the proper mood))
Source: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.d...LIFE/903050319
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