Student Directed Plays Honor Those Lost and Those Remembered

Last month two Winsor students, Sienna McCabe ’27 and Robin Chávez Shirman ’27, presented their student-directed plays as a part of a joint program titled Lock & Cover, performed three times from January 30–31. The culmination of months of work by these directors, their casts of Winsor student actors, their technical crew, and their teachers, the two plays, Lockdown and Back Cover tackled emotional, profound, and intensely relevant subject matter with astonishing maturity and skill. The plays were “dedicated in honor of those whose lives were taken too soon,” as the program stated, and the thoughtful productions lived up to that solemn dedication.

In Lockdown, written by Douglas Craven and directed by Sienna, tensions run high in a classroom during a school lockdown, where the everyday conflicts of high schoolers run up against some of contemporary American society’s deepest fears. Are these students unknowingly part of a drill, or is something darker taking place on the other side of their barricaded classroom door? Under Sienna’s direction, these students did an incredible job of escalating the tension to a boiling point in this timely, poignant performance.

“Directing Lockdown has taught me something I hadn’t realized before,” wrote Sienna in her director’s note: “Fear doesn’t always look like panic. Sometimes it looks like laughter, jokes in the dark, trying to feel normal. For us to understand the fear that comes with these safe-mode drills, and with the ever-changing (and pretty scary) world around us, it’s important to also understand who is really being protected: kids. That is why I chose this play.”

Balancing gentle humor with immense emotional depth, Back Cover, written by Emily Hagerman and directed by Robin, tells the story of Madison, a girl who discovers a box of old letters in her new New York City apartment and finds companionship in the writer’s words. But as she learns about the history of New York City, and the tragedy of September 11, she comes to discover that the past is closer and more immediate than it first appeared. What unfolds is a play about the lessons of history and the power of keeping alive the stories of those who came before us.

“The play explores, among other things, how young people process grief, awareness, and responsibility in a world that often moves on too quickly,” Robin wrote in their director’s note. “My hope is that this production encourages educational institutions like Winsor to create more intentional spaces for students to reflect on current events and moments of collective loss. Theatre can be a place where difficult conversations begin, and Back Cover is my attempt to start one.”

You can find the full cast and crew of Lockdown and Back Cover below, and you can watch the full video of the program on Vimeo.

Lockdown featured actors Avaleigh Burns ’29, Anna McDonnell ’29, Sarah Finkelstein ’28, Marlowe Bolton ’29, Ayaka Hatabu ’28, Majdouline Tanefis ’29, Ana Sofia Chavarro ’29, Yutong Ma ’28, and Chloe Lien ’29. Its stage manager was Summer Brenninkmeyer ’18.

Back Cover featured actors Grace Whitworth-Neufeld ’29, Rosaline Popp ’29, Lana Fravel ’28, Madelyn Litofsky ’28, Ana Sofia Chavarro ’29, Ayaka Hatabu ’28, Yutong Ma ’28, Chloe Lien ’29, Aya Goldwasser ’27, and Avaleigh Burns ’29. Its stage manager was Bella Holt ’27.

Both plays featured costume design by Zola Tierney ’29 and technical direction from Theater Technical Director Andres Puigbo.