Drury students have the unique opportunity to get hands-on experience in the career fields they want to enter before they enter them. Every Drury senior takes a senior seminar class and the form of these projects vary based on major. Senior Keisha McMillen is directing Consolations.

McMillen said that the entire directing process has been a great surprise to her.

“I came to Drury to be an actress, but I never had the idea of directing, which is really funny because I am a leader,” McMillen said.

She said that Dr. Schraft helped her see her potential as a director. He had told her that she had a gift for directing and wanted her to have the opportunity of directing the one-acts. However, once she committed to doing it she had to determine which one-act she wanted to direct.

“I decided to pick Consolation out of the others I read, because this show is about a man and a woman who are both trying to get one thing from the other,” she said. “There is so much energy and emotion; they are constantly trying to come at each other and get what the other person wants.”

McMillen believes this show is so powerful because of the energy it lends to the lead characters and its relatability to present-day situations.

“I think that it is really important for people to figure out who they are and where to find their voice,” she said.

She also said that there have been times where she has felt walked over, and this show gives herself and her actors the backbone they may not have had before.

“I want my actors to feel more confident than anything,” McMillen said.

She believes her actors bring new aspects to the characters that she didn’t expect, nor has ever seen before. During the casting process she thought she had an idea of who she wanted to cast, but it wasn’t until callbacks that she truly figured everything out.

“It was surprising in a good way,” she said.

She also learned how rooted directing is in leadership.

“It’s not just telling people to do things, you are coaching them, too,” McMillen said. “As a director you are learning from your actors just as much as they are learning from you.”

From this leadership opportunity, she has also learned how important it is to figure out how each actor learns, because they all use different tactics.

“You don’t want to read their lines to them or show them how to do it; you want to help them to figure it out by themselves,” she said.

One of the greatest lessons McMillen has learned while working on Consolations is that she will never stop learning.

“You plan how the whole rehearsal process is going to go and you have to make all these rehearsal times, production meetings and put everything together. You think you know what you’re doing up until the time you have to do it,” she said.

McMillen said that it has helped her keep her cast and crew involved in the process.

“I’m really open with them and I try to get their opinions and views,” McMillen said.

She acknowledged that she knows she will watch Consolations from opening night to the last show and see things she may have wanted to change. McMillen said that accepting things are never truly finished is a learning process in itself, but its this valuable experience that has allowed her to grow as a theatre student.

“What I love about directing is that I get this opportunity to show people what they are capable of. I get to show people what they have inside themselves that they may not have noticed before.”

Consolations will run in Wilhoit Theater, Nov. 8-11 starting at 7:30 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend.