Eden Daughtry, a senior at Ponte Vedra High School and Vice President of the International Thespians Society (ITS), shared her hilariously touching self-written and directed one acts on April 11 for the One Act Showcase. She took Nuptials<\/em> to the One Act Competition at ITS earlier this year. After receiving positive reviews from a potential scene for a prequel, Daughtry decided to write a prequel, Val and I<\/em>. Both Val and I<\/em> and Nuptials<\/em> follow the same friend group through flirtatious meetings in college to their friend getting cold feet at her wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bringing Nuptials <\/em>to life has been a labor of love for Daughtry since her freshman year at PVHS. The idea of a girl getting cold feet before her wedding was an early draft Daughtry thought of for an assignment in Theatre 1. She thought it would be interesting to explore how the entire wedding party reacts to the news of their friend getting cold feet. She was encouraged by Lindsay Goldman, now a senior at PVHS, to finish writing the play. \u201cI thought I was going to, and I completely forgot about it until three years later,\u201d Daughtry said. When Mr. Nettle, the theatre director, announced that there would be a one-act showcase performance, she proposed that they use her idea, Nuptials<\/em>. Although the idea came in her first year at PVHS, Daughtry is sure that she wouldn\u2019t have been able to write Nuptials <\/em>back then. \u201cI think I had to do a lot of soul-searching, researching, and learning,\u201d Daughtry reflected. She found inspiration from Mr. Nettle and from reading plays such as Proof<\/em> by David Auburn. Mr. Nettle encouraged her to continue writing after reading how well the characters interacted and spoke with each other like real people, like a family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The process of getting both Nuptials<\/em> and Val and I<\/em> on stage was an extensive effort. She said that writing both one-acts was one of the easier processes for her since Nuptials<\/em> took two days to complete, and Val and I<\/em> only took one night. Although this was her first time directing, Daughtry found that it came easy. \u201cI knew how I wrote it; I knew how I wanted it to sound, and I knew how I wanted them to sound in my head,\u201d Daughtry recalled. \u201cI would do this thing where in the middle of an entire scene I would stop them and say: \u2018Alright stop! I want you to say it like this instead!\u2019\u201d Daughtry had a vision of what the characters would say and how they would say it. Daughtry expressed her love and gratitude for her actors since she got to work so closely with everyone through the entire process. Although Mr. Nettle approved the production, he let Daughtry know it couldn\u2019t interfere with other school productions. With these guidelines, the cast would get to school at 7:30 a.m. to rehearse every day. Many of the actors had other obligations: rehearsals for Clue<\/em>, Kiss Me Kate<\/em>, and Sharkapellas. Despite all of this, Daughtry said they would be at school from 7:45 a.m. to 8 p.m. to prepare. For that, Daughtry was so thankful for all the effort everyone put into the showcase. She credited the success of the showcase to the team effort that was put in through the entire process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would do this thing where in the middle of an entire scene I would stop them and say: \u2018Alright stop! I want you to say it like this instead!\u201d<\/p>Eden Daughtry<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Daughtry\u2019s playwriting has earned praise from judges at ITS and her peers. Despite her seemingly natural talent for writing, she always believed that her passion was performing on stage. \u201cI thought I was going to sing, I thought I was going to act, I thought I was going to be in front of everybody on stage, and that\u2019s all I ever did up until the beginning of this year.\u201d She has been in numerous PVHS productions such as High School Musical<\/em> and Crucible<\/em>. \u201cI never thought this would be something that I would do. I think if I told my freshman self that I wrote a play and I wasn\u2019t in it, she would probably would\u2019ve kicked me in the shins because I never imagined myself being behind the scenes.\u201d Despite her love for being in front of an audience, she found that being behind the scenes was one of the most rewarding experiences. When she took Nuptials<\/em> to the competition, Daughtry remembered how nervous she was. However, as soon as one of the characters, Hal, cracked a joke about \u201cspeaking chick,\u201d the entire room started to laugh. \u201cI realized in that moment, that was more fulfilling and more rewarding than being up on stage had ever been,\u201d she reflected. \u201cI loved being on stage, and I still do, but it doesn\u2019t compare at all to writing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After her senior year comes to a close, Daughtry will attend the University of Tennessee Knoxville. As for her on-stage career, she hopes that she will be able to act, but she doesn\u2019t see it in her future. However, she does seem certain that she will continue writing plays throughout college. Over the past year, Daughtry has found comfort and escape through playwriting, and she said she has about eight unfinished works. \u201cI don\u2019t think I will do theatre in college, but I will definitely write plays,\u201d she asserted. Although she was slightly hesitant to write, once she finished the one-act and shared it with her peers, they all told her that it was hilarious and honest. \u201cI never thought I would be good at it, but now it\u2019s one of the only things I do all the time,\u201d Daughtry said. The impression her writing has left on her audience has lasted over months, and people have been begging to read more of her work. Being an amazing writer speaks to her capability as a well-rounded theatre student, and Daughtry looks forward to what the world of playwriting will hold for her. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Leila Wickliffe Eden Daughtry, a senior at Ponte Vedra High School and Vice President of the International Thespians Society (ITS), shared her hilariously touching self-written and directed one acts on April 11 for the One Act Showcase. She took Nuptials to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Wickliffe_Eden-Daughtry.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4269,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions\/4269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}