Sitting back in a chair on a Friday night, high school theater director Josh Adell watches as the first sketch of the Drama Lab Experiment (DLE) begins, and feels pride well up in his chest. The students he has worked with for the past six weeks have been writing, revising, acting, refining, directing and adjusting, and they performed their carefully crafted sketches on May 16 and 17.
The DLE is an immersive theater experience that Adell created four years ago. First, students write their own plays. Then, each student is chosen to direct another student’s play, all while acting in the works they and their classmates have created. Adell’s goal was to design a space where students can create original work while gaining skills in leadership, directing, writing and acting. The DLE also allows students to continue to connect through theater after the high school play and musical ends. Adell, who has been involved in theater since high school, found a home in the theater community, and he now loves helping teenagers discover the same passion and haven that theater brought him.
“Kids have an ocean of creativity,” Adell said. “I never need to be afraid someone won’t have anything to write about. It’s there, [they] just need a guide or a teacher to light that spark or to awaken them to their own ideas. Some kids don’t even need that. Some kids have it and just need it sculpted, which I help them do, but I never have to worry.”
Wyatt K. ‘26 envisions a future career in directing, and he believes the DLE has provided an excellent platform for him to explore this field. Wyatt finds the writing portion of the DLE process to be particularly challenging, yet this makes the final product even more rewarding for him .
“The biggest thing I’ve learned [from the DLE] is you can’t control everything,” Wyatt said. “I’m still learning, and I love the dynamic [and] collaborative creative process the DLE provides. I know even if I’m [uncertain] about a creative decision, I can trust one of my actors to give [me] constructive feedback.”
Similar to Wyatt, Amanda B. ‘25 aspires to pursue a career that includes an aspect of the DLE: writing. Creative writing is her passion, and the DLE is another form of exercising her writing skills outside her English and creative writing classes. Though she feels it can be hard sometimes to give up creative control over her projects when they’re handed over to another student to direct, she has learned to trust the process. Furthermore, she has learned how to direct and act while gaining more insight into the creative writing process.
“My [other forms of] creative writing [are] a lot better because I have more time to work and edit,” Amanda said. “But for the DLE, it’s more rushed, but that makes it more authentic. The creative process is always evolving, and nothing is ever going to be perfect.”
The unique creative process of the DLE is also something Bella N. ‘25 appreciates, as it gives her a space to express herself creatively without the limitations of a traditional classroom setting. Bella feels many of the skills she’s picked up through her experience in theater have carried over to the DLE despite the greater time crunch this endeavor presents.
“Being able to be creative on my own terms and seeing that work portrayed is such a beautiful process,” Bella said. “[Through theater] I’ve learned how to work efficiently and being well organized has definitely helped me [in the DLE]. Through the DLE, I’ve learned how to just get my thoughts [and ideas] out without being overly critical of myself.”
Ellie P. ‘25 has been a part of the DLE for three years and shares the same sentiment as Bella. Learning to trust herself with someone else’s work and trusting someone else with her work has taken some time to learn, but Ellie is proud of how far she’s come. As a senior, Ellie believes that the DLE is a great finish to her high school theater career; it is a practice of leadership and confidence in herself and a testament to her growth since ninth grade. The DLE is also the last time she will perform with the friends she’s made in Campbell Hall’s Performing Arts Program. For Ellie, having these people in the DLE is an integral part of the experience, and she shares many fond memories with them that she knows will stick with her as she moves on from high school.
“Last year, before we performed, we all just laid down on the ground,” Ellie said. “Although it has nothing to do with writing or directing or acting, just having the community together, all just laughing and enjoying each other’s company and being proud of each other and supporting each other, is really what DLE is about. Because everyone also gives constructive criticism—we’re all students, nobody’s perfect, and it’s nice to have each other’s support and honesty. Spending that extra time together was a really good, all-encompassing moment.”
