Cowritten by Sneha Gaur and Emma Lam

Senior Zarek Peris: Creator

Photo by Sneha Gaur.

Junior Sithara Menon: Director

Photo by Sneha Gaur

EE: Could you describe the plot of your play?

ZP: My play is about a magician trying to be the best magician in his country. But his problem is that he doesn’t work very hard. Someone else does all the work for him. So you will see throughout the play how his laziness impacts his personal life and his goals ultimately changing him so that one day he can be the man he wants to be.

EE: How did you write this play?

ZP: Really the way I write a play is to start with the title. I was thinking about magicians because I was watching a lot of Penn & Teller. And reflecting on my high school experience, being a senior, applying to college, or getting into college all requires a lot of effort. So I was thinking who better to tell the story there is no magic, you have to work hard to achieve your goals. Then magicians! Right? So it’s really a pun for the moral, that there is no magic to working hard and to achieving.

EE: What was the hardest part in making this play?

ZP: There are definitely some character development issues. A lot of times you find yourself trying to be artsy, and forgetting that there needs to be structure, storyline.

EE: What was the hardest part about directing?

SM: This is my first time directing a whole show, I’ve only done individual scenes before that. So one thing I struggled with was getting the characterizations to come across. Because it’s only a 30 minute show, it’s a little bit difficult in that limited amount of time to carry across everything that i had wanted to show. I ended having to pick and choose which emotions and character choices I wanted in each particular scene.