Promotional poster for Moses Ferney’s SNS, Into the Cosmos
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of directing a Saturday Night Show (SNS) at Pine Island, you know that to do so is borderline madness. Your work begins the night before with an idea, perhaps a few one-liners—at most, a rough sketch of a plot for the night’s spectacle. At breakfast on Saturday, you still have no cast; less than twelve hours lie between you and the one and only performance of the hour-long show you must create in that short span.
For many counselors, it’s the best-worst experience at Pine Island. The nonstop work and pressure, coupled with the joy of seeing your vision come to life and watching campers perform for the first time, make directing an SNS a uniquely rewarding proposition. When the uninitiated hear about this (in)famous aspect of the PIC experience, they cannot believe we accomplish such a feat every week. They would surely be dumbfounded to learn that during this past summer, a first-year camper wrote and directed one of these shows!
Moses Ferney first expressed interest in taking on this challenge around the midpoint of the summer. Having directed and performed in many fantastic campfire skits, Moses turned his attention to the Pine Island thespian’s holy grail: an SNS. Writing and directing an SNS as a camper was not quite unprecedented; Buckley Livingston, along with his creative partners Alex Lanoff and Will Napolitano, had helmed the successful horror-comedy The Dust several years before. We naturally turned to Buckley, now a counselor, to assist Moses in his effort to create an SNS.
The duo developed an incredible show: Into the Cosmos. It was the last SNS of the season, capping a memorable summer of performances. Not only was it a wholly original story, the play was also nuanced, hilarious, and imaginative. And most importantly, all the performers loved putting on the show. Moses and Buckley deserve the utmost praise for pulling it off, and it highlighted a sometimes-forgotten aspect of PIC: the all-important creative aspect of living on an island without screens. Buckley and Moses reminded us that great creativity is still possible without advanced technology, and that powerful, hilarious entertainment can come not only from Hollywood mega-studios, but from our friends and our own community.
Editor’s Note: To learn about our other Saturday Night Shows last season, check out Kaja’s article: A 2023 Saturday Night Show Report.