Compared to other theater performances at Parker, there were no teachers cueing on stage or rehearsing with students after school in preparation for the annual Fourth Wall show. In fact each production was put together independently by students with minimal guidance from teachers.

This year Fourth Wall produced three student-written plays, “Rattlesnakes,” by Nina Sachs; “Avocado,” by Alex Ori and featuring Hannah Kershner and David Rothman; and “Spirit Air,” by Molly Weinberg and directed by Natalie Braye. Each play was one scene long, and the group gave two performances in the TV Studio on June 2. In between each play was a comedic skit performed by sophomores Audrey Shadle and Zoe Laris Djokovic. “What’s different about the performances this year is that we aren’t all working on one piece, but instead, one production,” sophomore Sarah Jayne Austin, an assistand director to the show “Rattlesnakes,” said before the performances. “I’m excited to see what the other two groups have put together when we all perform.”

Last year Fourth Wall put on a play written by senior and head of Fourth Wall Franny Weed called “Spelling Something Real” about a young girl coping with her sister’s death through hallucinations of their shared imaginary friends.

“For the play that I did, it was personal to me because I have two younger sisters,” Weed said, “so it was based on my experience growing up with them.”

New heads are chosen to lead and direct the group each year. After taking over the club from Parker alum Zoe Sonnenberg in her sophomore year, Weed said, she found it difficult to get in “the swing of things.”

Weed has led Fourth Wall for three years now, and the group now needs to choose who will take over. “I’m still thinking about who will take over, but the plan is to have two people next year,” she said. “I was put in charge as a sophomore, and I had no idea how to do anything, and the hardest part was getting a play that is written by students because not a lot of students here write, and not a lot write plays.”

Unlike leadership positions in Student Government, there are no official elections for Fourth Wall leadership. Faculty adviser Mike Mahany said, “Every year leadership kind of changes hands and falls in the hands of the person who takes charge the next year and who is really willing to put time into it.”

Fourth Wall was created around ten years ago by Jeremy Ohringer, ‘08. Upper school English teacher and faculty sponsor of Fourth Wall Mike Mahany said, “The purpose was to have a student-run, student-founded, student-directed drama group to give outlets other than Parker’s official spring musical and fall play to have other drama outlets for students.”

Typically in the season first a call for plays is sent out to the entire student body, followed by auditions, roles assigned, and finally rehearsal and performance.

Each year Fourth Wall does something different depending on who is in charge. “I like how it can fluctuate year to year depending on who is in charge,” he said, “so we always get to do something different and new.”