Four seniors, all theatre majors, will present four one-act plays this weekend in Xavier Hall's studio theatre. The one acts are the final exercise that the students must complete as they bring their semester in Tom Martin's directing class to a close.

The performances are a culmination not just of the students' work in Martin's class, but also of the experience they have gained within the theater department at Saint Louis University over the past four years.

"Every class, every person you meet is important in the theatrical process," said directing student James Malone. As a student of theatre, Malone said, "You learn about things that you would never have been interested in, and you can bring in all the things that you have learned in order to transform a play from words on a page to human beings on the stage."

Malone, who many will recognize as the male lead, Todd, from the University Theatre's recent performance of Caryl Churchill's "Far Away," will direct "The Public Eye," a comedy written by Peter Shaffer. Set in the 1960s, the story involves a suspicious husband, a young wife and the private investigator who gets caught in the middle.

"I chose the play because I felt deep personal responses to each of these characters," Malone said. "Through the characters, Shaffer has many insights about human beings and the human condition, many of them coming when it's least expected."

Paul Balfe, who starred as Jerome in the musical "Ain't Misbehavin'" last spring, directs "The Mid-Life Crisis of Dionysus," written by Garrison Keillor. Balfe chose this particular one-act play because Keillor has been a favorite of his since he began listening to "Prairie Home Companion."

"It tells the story of Dionysus, the god of wine and great parties, and how he deals with the calamity of turning 50 and therefore losing his godhood," Balfe said.

Leslie Sullivan will present "Next," a comedy by Terrance McNally that focuses on a man in his 40s who must take his draft physical, and Adam Thenhaus will direct another comedy: "Dr. Fritz: or, The Forces of Light," about a man who enters a doctor's office in a third-world country complaining of food poisoning.

Balfe said that Martin's directing class has been one of the most difficult theatre classes he has taken at SLU, as it requires students to step out of the role of the actor and engage themselves with the production process in a whole new way.

"Normally, as an actor, I would look at the play from the stage, going out," he said. "As a director, with the lens now pointing in, it's an entirely different experience. It's helped me gain a new perspective and much more respect for the amount of work that goes into making a play happen."

Post-graduation, Balfe plans to apply to graduate programs in theatre, while Malone is considering earning a master's degree in film criticism.

"Directing is good to help train the critical eye, to really be able to focus on both the particulars and the gestalt whole of a piece," Malone said. "As a critic of theatre, it's a good exercise to get a hands-on approach to what you are analyzing. It's about perspective and insight into an area of theatre that we don't know."

Learning about each side of the theatrical process "makes us better theatre artists, and not simply actors or technicians," Malone said.

Martin's directing class covers staging, conception and everything in between, incorporating discussion of both contemporary and past directors and their work.

"It is wonderful to watch [the students] grow through the five-minute production to the 10-minute production, and tackle the one-act," Martin said of his students' work this semester. Although the class is demanding, and directing a daunting task, "they handle it with panache," Martin said.

Last spring, Martin directed the University Theatre's performance of "Our Town." This spring, in addition to directing Kenneth Lonergan's "Lobby Hero" at the Repertoire Theatre, he will co-direct the University Theatre's production of Seneca's "Trojan Women."

The One Acts will be performed Friday and Saturday, Dec. 3 and 4, at 8 p.m. Although there is no admission charge, theatergoers can make a donation to offset production costs. The studio theatre is located on the ground floor of Xavier Hall.