On Thursday, May 16th, the Upper-School theater program performed Tommy Folan’s Senior Directed play, 13 Ways to Screw Up a College Interview. Starring Tommy Folan ’25, Stephen Agular ’25, Adrian Tan ’25, Jai Somani ’26, Boston Ezedi ’26, Will Achtmeyer ’26, and PJ Nolan ’27, and featuring Max Dow ’25 running the tech booth, the play follows two college admissions officers as they interview a variety of un-deserving and quirky applicants, hoping to find one more student for the fall semester.
Given that practice time was limited to only a handful of sit-down lunches, the play had to be pulled together very quickly. This, combined with some actors dropping out, necessitated some skillful improvisation by Tommy and the other actors. To his relief, Nicky Jones ’26, Mr. Conway, and Mr. Patterson all signed on to the cast. Nevertheless, they were able to pull off an amazing performance and provide viewers with a hilarious 20-minutes of drama.
Director Tommy Folan said, “I was extremely happy with how it turned out, especially given our issues late in the game. Big shout out to Max Dow for the great tech and Nicky for stepping in at the last minute.” This sentiment was reflected by the viewers, with Cotter Healey ’26 stating, “I thought the play was really funny, and I liked how quickly it switched between the interviews and also how different each interview was.”
In the end, despite some setbacks, Tommy Folan and the Upper School actors were able to pull together a hilarious and intelligent play filled with fantastic performances from all the actors.