Kit Clemente
Reporter
Beginning on Mar. 8 and running through Mar. 10, the high school theater will perform their Spring production, Sweet Charity. The play is based off the original musical movie written by Neil Simon and directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse. It’s the story of a young woman, Charity, who supports herself as a dance call hostess and tirelessly searches for love.
Senior Alexa Holzberger, starring as Charity, describes her character. “She’s strong and optimistic, but at the same time manages to have a naive and innocent quality about her,” she said. “I look at the play as a dark comedy, because Charity never gives up hope in her continual search for love no matter the turns her relationships take.”
With extensive and abundant rehearsals, the cast has been working hard to bring together the production. “Being that it’s only been the 4th week of rehearsals, we’ve done a lot. We’ve actually finished the first act, which is a big feat,” senior Allie Potenza, playing Helene, said. “It’s good because once you’ve rehearsed something it’s up on its feet and then you can practice it and make it stronger.”
“The cast actually worked outside of rehearsal to write biographies for our characters,” Alexa added. “We did this to develop our characters more thoroughly, and really get to know them, which is essential to our production.”
Junior Jesse Bird, playing a baseball player and bouncer, spoke about the challenges the production presents. “A favorite, but challenging feature of the show is the set, because it has a very difficult design. Despite this, I’m very excited to see how everything comes out after all the hard work the tech team has put in,” he said.
“The dances are always complicated and intense,” expressed Jesse. “But I’m getting to know them better as I come to understand and improve my dancing skills.”
“In general, we are a very young cast because this production has a lot of freshman with larger roles. It’s hard to focus at times, but it’s all about teaching the younger kids the process of NCHS Theater so we can learn from each other and build a stronger production,” Allie said. “As with any show, everything is a little scattered, but once everyone is together it becomes a cohesive process. This happens when the whole cast is committed and focused; when it clicks it’s the magic of theater.”
Although the cast faces these challenges, their hard work is already proving to be successful. “Since the first read of the script in the beginning of December, I could tell the show was going to be great because of the cast’s various and creative approaches to their roles in the show,” Jesse said. “Overall, things are going very smoothly, and we’ve really plowed through the material.”
And as the opening day approaches, the actors are forced to concentrate their efforts to achieve the best possible Sweet Charity. “A performer has to be committed in all three of the fields, performers have to listen to each other and make connections with the other actors before everything falls into place,” Allie said.
