Emily Roberts has spent the better half of her senior year preparing for her first fully  directed play to hit the stage. With the help of her fellow thespians, the job has come quite naturally to her.

“It’s just a simple show so that it’s easy to take places,” Roberts said.

The play chosen by Roberts was “Censorbleep”. With a strong empowering meaning behind the story, the show is meant to bring a new twist to the Har-Ber stage.

“It’s kinda weird being in a position of authority, and also trying to be friends with everybody, while still trying to direct,” Robets said.

Emily seems to be

handling the leadership role

excellently, finding a perfect, natural balance between camaraderie and authority.

“It’s nice because it gives us a little more room to make suggestions. Like with Terrell so we go with what he says, but with student directing I work directly with Emily. So it’s more of a collaborative process and trust each other,” senior stage manger Faith Eccles said.

Having a student in the position of authority is quite enjoyed amongst the cast of “Censorbleep”. It provides the opportunity to have a stronger understanding of the busy lives students live.

“It’s okay if we aren’t 100 percent focused on rehearsals for

‘’Censorbleep”. That’s definitely one of my favorite parts,” senior Steele Englemann said.

The play in and of itself appears to be quite enjoyed by the cast as well, not just Roberts herself.

“I enjoy it a lot. A lot of the parts are equal, I’d say, in terms of

involvement and everyone feels

important within the cast. There aren’t a lot of characters who are just there for two lines, all the characters hold importance to the plot,”

Englemann said.

Terrell himself even loves the play.

“We went with the production of “Censorbleep” because it talks about censorship in a way that isn’t scary, like it’s not going to make people

uncomfortable, It’s going to make them think and it’s more about

personal censorship, human

censorship, versus censorship of different things so your censoring people versus censoring items,” Terrell said. “And the idea that falls around is something that these

students always worry about

because we censor ourselves on a daily basis, and students always worry about ‘am I censoring myself too much or am I not censoring myself enough.’ Some kids filters just aren’t there and they just say

anything that just pops into their heads, so censorship can be a good thing in that respect.”

Terrel expects the show to go well, especially for him not being in

complete control.

“The big thing for her is to just keep having fun while she’s working because that’s the key. If you’re directing and you’re having fun while you’re directing, you’re doing it right. If you aren’t having fun you’re not doing it right at all,” Terrell said.