Student Profiles

There is a problem with the chemistry between the guy in the black T-shirt with the long brown hair and the girl in the cowboy boots. And it’s Amy’s job to fix it.

The girl has just said something to him, but Amy thinks the body language was wrong. “That’s one of those times where you have to look at him,” she says with the confidence of someone who knows. “And Josh, you need to project more.”

If Amy seems a little intrusive in the couple’s relationship, it’s because she’s responsible for it. They are actors, it’s a play, and Amy is directing it as part of her senior project. And it does not take long to realize that she is very, very good at this job. At 17 she may lack the credentials of the world’s most famous stage and screen directors, but the control she exerts over the scenes being acted out under her watchful gaze is positively Spielbergian.

“And don’t touch her,” Amy instructs. “There’s a tension in not touching, because if you touch, something could happen. She’s a little on edge, and you’re on edge too, but you’re the logic. You’re the voice of reason here.”

And if there were ever any question, Amy—standing straight, arms folded, eyes alive to every gesture, every nuance being played out in front of her—is without doubt the voice of authority.