One Act Welcome New Director, Mr. Chris Kabes
It has come to that time of year again when One Act competitions begin. The cast and crew have been working very hard over the past couple months. This year the One Act team has a new head coach, Mr. Chris Kabes. Mr. Kabes is a familiar face to the students at Bergan because of his role as our Speech coach for the past couple of years. While Mr. Kabes does love coaching speech, the theater has also been something special for him. When he was in elementary, his music teacher (who was also the high school drama teacher) would use her high school students to help put on big musical shows with the elementary students. They even received the opportunity to perform for other schools around them. “I got picked for the lead in the show, so I realized i just had a sort-of knack for it,” commented Mr. Kabes, “After that, I tried out for the Missoula Children’s Theatre a few times and ended up sticking with it through high school.”
After enjoying his time as an actor the theater, Mr. Kabes decided to try directing. From the moment he tried directing, everything just clicked. “A lot of my strengths tend to line up well with directing - by nature I tend to be pretty organized and notice a lot of little details,” stated Mr. Kabes. He enjoys the challenge that comes when trying to solve unique problems that come up with the set and technical aspects of a show. But most of all, Mr. Kabes enjoys working with the actors and seeing them bring the story to life. “I try to keep things positive and treat each show as a process,” said Mr. Kabes, “Things are always evolving throughout the season, so that if you see our show more than once it will be a little different (and hopefully better) each time.”
When putting together a One Act, you have to know your actors. Mr. Kabes loves getting to know each of the team members and seeing them develop as performers. He always hopes to get each student to reach their potential and it might be something different for everyone. “For some, that might mean being in the running for Best Actor or Best Actress at State. For others it might be getting past their stage fright and contributing to the show in some meaningful way,” Mr. Kabes said. He finds it very rewarding to help performers grow, no matter where they are on the spectrum of performers.
It isn’t always easy selecting the right play to perform, but Mr. Kabes has a simple process. He likes to look to see who his strongest performers will be and how he can fit them into show. He then mentally cycles through a dozen shows or so until he finds one that clicks with the cast he has. The script he chose for this year he found around ten years ago. Kabes has been waiting for the right time with the right group of people to come along for it to be performed.
This year's one act is “This is Not a Pipe Dream” by Barry Kornhauser. It centers around the life of a surrealist painter, Rene Magritte. The author of the play tries to recreate certain events of Magritte's life that might explain some of his bizarre works.
With their conference competition coming up really soon, a goal of Mr. Kabes is, “always to put forth a beautiful product on the stage. Something for which the students involved - as well as our whole school and community - can be proud of,” commented Mr. Kabes, “I try to approach it as though we are our own biggest competitors, and that if we can push ourselves to approach perfection within our own show, the success at competitions will follow.”
Mr. Kabes is very blessed to be back at Bergan again after leaving in 2010. “It hurt so much to leave and move way, but God has somehow led me and my family back. I feel like the life experiences I gained over those seven years has helped me to become a better director than I ever could have become by just staying put.” Isaiah 55:9 is a bible verse that often came to his mind during that time and it still does today. His wish for everyone reading is to look up Isaiah 55:9 see how it applies to their life.
The One Act team will be performing on November 18th at Cedar Bluffs High School and November 20th at Columbus Scotus. Go out and support your One Act team!
