Capstone Projects were first introduced to the Roaring Fork School District with the graduating class of 2018, and since their debut, there have been countless projects completed, each with their own specially chosen topics. The flexibility offered means students can chart their own path and create a project centered around their passions and interests, and in some cases, help them explore a future career. I had the opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with Charlie Hippensteel, Clover Way, and Samara Kallal, a group of students directing a performance of “The Minutes,” a comedic play written by Tracy Letts, and gained valuable insight into not only their feelings on their project, but also their thoughts on Capstones as a whole.

The three of them have been friends since their first year of high school, and both Sam and Charlie agreed on their project being related to theater in that year. Each of them have extensive backgrounds in the arts, as well as a practically contagious passion for theater. 

ACHILLES PIEPER: Why theater for your Capstone project?

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CHARLIE HIPPENSTEEL: I started doing theater in Freshman year, and I’ve realized that for me, there’s nothing better than a crowd; a crowd that responds is a great feeling. You’ve put in all this work, [put] all this time into this one project, and then it finally pays off. If we could turn it into a living, maybe I would do that, too.

PIEPER: And why “The Minutes” specifically? What does it mean to you?

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HIPPENSTEEL: “The Minutes” criticizes certain cultures in a small town in America, where they have this idea about how their town was formed, and they have a specific narrative ingrained so far that when they’re faced with the truth 一 that [the land] was stolen from the Native Americans, oftentimes through heinous acts 一 they reject the idea. And so, this play, it sneaks up on you. You’re having a good time with the comedy, and then it blows it in your face that these people are the way that they are, and they have been, this whole time, despite the information they’ve been given about the true origins of their town. And that was why we chose it, because it has a lot of parallels with Glenwood Springs, too. 

PIEPER: How has the capstone allowed you to explore your passion for theater?

CLOVER WAY: It has taught me a different side of what I usually explore with this. With theater, I don’t usually do backstage: I’m usually on stage, so it’s really interesting to learn all the different mechanisms of a show. 

HIPPENSTEEL: I feel like, personally, I’ve gained a new appreciation for our high school’s theater director, Amy Moritz, for all of the things she does, because now I’m having to [do them], and it’s not just me, it’s three of us that are sharing that workload. 

SAMARA KALLAL: Well, I’m an on-stage person too, to be completely honest with you, so becoming a director and producer really allowed me to step off stage and experience everything that directors and producers go through on a daily basis when they’re trying to produce a show. 

PIEPER: In an earlier conversation I had with you all, you mentioned some of the advice you’ve received from others. What piece of advice would you say had the most value to you? 

HIPPENSTEEL: To work on character work. We’ve had problems with people laughing during very serious scenes, and when we asked our community expert, Kate McRaith, about it, she said it’s because they’re not in character. They’re not reacting in that situation how that character would react. So we have to make sure that they’re acting in character the whole time. That, and making sure they have concrete [ideas] of their characters, so that it just comes as second nature. It’s not having to think about what they’re doing, it’s just.. Doing.

PIEPER: And what would you say the most valuable thing you’ve learned from this is?

WAY: No one’s going to help you. Sometimes you have to really push things to happen. You have to get the actors to learn their lines, you have to ask for things you need, you can’t just assume they’ll give it to you. 

PIEPER: Wow. What would you say to parents wondering about the capstone?

WAY: It’s a really cool project, because it’s not like any other school assignment, where you just have to do what the teacher tells you. You kind of get to make it your own, and do something that you’re actually passionate about, which actually makes it a very fun experience, because it’s a passion project. You get to do something that speaks to you. If you choose the right topic for you, it’s a great way to get experience in whatever field you want to go into, and really explore that and see if it is what you want to do.

PIEPER: Any critiques on the format of the projects? Anything that can improve next year? 

WAY: Probably just administration. Working with the students, rather than against them. It definitely has felt like every idea we’ve had was torn down and blocked. 

KALLAL: One of our biggest challenges has been communication. I feel like, especially when it comes to theater rentals, it’s been difficult to arrange it all.

HIPPENSTEEL: We haven’t been getting a lot of support from school staff. In fact we’ve actually been hindered pretty significantly by the people that were supposed to have given us a rehearsal space. The last time the seniors did something like this, they had the theater to be able to rehearse. They told us that we would have to have chaperones to do the same, which isn’t really a problem, we could have chaperones. There’s also been talk that the last group of seniors didn’t have chaperones, too.

PIEPER: Is it more of a scheduling thing, where they’ve already got stuff going on, or are they just not allowing you to use it?

HIPPENSTEEL: The theater is empty those days, so it’s really just red tape. They just don’t want to give it to us, I think, because the last group of seniors were disrespecting the space. That, and also the format of the Capstones themselves. You have to present it with that website, but there’s not a lot of concrete evidence to show what we’ve actually been doing, even though we have been doing the work. Mainly, all we have is attendance. We have posters and budget trackers and attendance sheets for deliverables, proof that we’re doing stuff toward it, but it’s a hard metric for some of the projects that we have this way of showing our progress, and it doesn’t fit certain projects. 

PIEPER: So you feel like it limits the amount of topics you can choose?

HIPPENSTEEL: Yeah, like you look at what I have on my website, and you wouldn’t think that I’m doing very much. You see none of the setbacks, and the hours spent, and the stress, only that there isn’t very much on there.

PIEPER: Well, thank you very much for all of your insight. 

“The Minutes” will be held at Glenwood Springs High School at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 18-19, directed by Samara Kallal & Charlie Hippensteel as part of their Capstone project. Tickets are purchased at the door, $15 for adults, $10 for kids 12 & under, as well as for students of Glenwood Springs High School.