By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Adelina Villarreal has been toying with the idea of a story where her autism was projected through a fairy.
“I just kind of had a random idea: what if autism had a character, a fairy?” Adelina said. She told her mother Kiri Villarreal, who responded: “You should do something with that.”
Adelina who has been penning one-person plays for years was excited at the prospect.
Now a junior she is seeing her play “Point of View” come to life on stage as part of the BGHS Drama Club’s evening of one-acts. “Winter One Acts” will be presented Wednesday, Jan. 29, Thursday, Jan. 30, and Friday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center.
It’s a night when students take charge. They write the scripts, direct, and act.
The 12-minute-long “Point of View’ is the only one with a student both directing and writing. Adelina, though, insists on crediting her mother, who attends all rehearsals, as her “co-director and comfort person.”
“It’s about accepting who you are and not letting whatever your mind stop you from doing what you like,” Adelina said. “It’s about a girl with autism. It’s based on my life.”
“A version of your life,” her mother chimed in.
Nina, the central character is bullied in school. That reflects the playwright’s own experience.
Nina is the central character. She has autism and is bullied for it by a group of fellow students. She was bullied.
Other kids, her mother said, didn’t understand why she acted the way she did.
“They targeted my stims,” Adelina said, explaining to the reporter that stims are a “repeated action or vocal noise that helps people (with autism) express or regulate their emotions.”
“The play very naturally weaves in definitions of elements of autism so the audience is being educated as the story unfolds,” said drama teacher Jo Beth Gonzalez.
For her its flapping her arms, a gesture that Nina, played by Ana Bullis, displays in the script when she learns that she and her best friend will get to wear the same dress for a drama production.
This sets off an episode of bullying by a group of students.
One of them clearly is more understanding, but is put down by his peers for it. That student, Adelina said, is going along with the bullying by peer pressure.
Observing and reacting to all this is Autumn (Mack Maxey), the autism fairy. Autumn dramatizes Nina’s inner reactions to the situations, adding some comic relief along the way. When a loud noise startles Nina, Autumn exclaims: “What the pixie dust was that? A bomb?” That phrase “what the pixie dust” has become an inside joke within the troupe.
That reflects the drama kids acceptance of Villarreal. “Drama is my safe space. Drama just feels like a breath of fresh air.”
“Those who have been with you have been able to understand your quirks,” said Kiri Villarreal. “They have not only learned about them, and they learned about you.”
Villarreal said she had always been interested in theater, but only became involved when she got into high school.
“You were born with a dramatic impulse,” Gonzalez told her. “You have a natural instinct to empathize and to express the feelings of yourself and other people. You can’t help but do it.”
Adelina has had roles in several productions including in “Dracula! in the fall of her freshman year.This fall she was one of the witches in “Macbeth.”
She did not want to cast herself in “Point of View.”
Instead she wanted another actor to learn what it’s like to be autistic, to see the world from her point of view.
Other members of the “Point of View” cast are: Blade Woods, Jack Scarlotto-Scholl, Ariah Rodriguez, Piper Stutzman, Quinn Percival, Huxley Beard, and Ian Titus.
Seeing her work on stage is “unreal the best kind of way,” Adelina said. “It’s magical, not just because there’s a fairy.”
She is excited that cast members and Gonzalez see greater potential in the story of “Point of View,” maybe as a picture book or a short film.
Beyond high school, Villarreal would like to study theater at BGSU. She wants a career where she can continued to express her creativity.
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Gonzalez provided the following information on the other productions included in Winter One-Acts are:
“A Typical Adventure.” written and directed by sisters Arianna (11th) and Greta (9th) Chung, satirizes the rumor mill in today’s swirl of social media posts, demonstrating the speed with which quick judgments complicate situations. Actors include Ella Nickey, Lia Wagner, Juliet Erekson, Amelia Bryant, Calista Motisher, Nathan Keller, Xander Sands, Blade Woods, Mack Maxey, and Anya Grillot.
“This Plane Will Crash If These Divorcees Don’t Find Love Again,” written and directed by seniors Mona Foreman and Slayer Porter, is a sequel to last year’s one-act, “I Object!” Set on a game show in which the contestants must jump from a plane if a love match isn’t made, this tale pokes fun at show runners’ obsession with show ratings. Actors are Xander Sands, Jonah Truman, Axel Frasor, Tyler Knauss, Khloie Peppers, Calla Higgins and Blade Woods.
“A Day in the Life of POTUS,” co-written by Eddie Lyons (11th) and Isaac Sands (12th) and co-directed by Eddie Lyons (11th) and Tyler Boice (12th), features a president of the United States who feigns illness so that his daughter can realize the weight of responsibility the POTUS role entails. Actors are Emarie Headley, Ana Bullis, Jack Scarlotto-Scholl, Amelia Bryant, Emma Nester, Reagan Hofmann, Piper Stutzman, Quinn Percival and Tucker Snyder.
The improv troupe The Tragic Comedians will also perform.
Junior Nia Warman serves as stage manager for the production.
