Lucy Paine, Reporter
@LucyPaine33
This year the theater program will be performing “The Drowsy Chaperone” as their winter musical. The show will run from March 14 to 16: buy tickets here.
This isn’t the first time the high school has done this show, it was performed in 2011 as a part of the spring musical. Director Christopher Myers loved how the show in 2011 turned out. “The first show was outstanding and we’re hoping to build on the memories we created then,” he said.
“It takes place in the 1920s during prohibition and it’s about a girl named Janet van de Graaf, who is a performer, dancer, and singer. She decides to leave show business to get married,” said senior Hannah Reid.
“The whole plot is that her agent is trying to get her to not get married and go back to show business. so he goes through all these hoops to try to stop the marriage from happening and it gets crazy because some people are trying to get the wedding to happen and he’s trying to stop it.”
Throughout the production, the narrator provides witty commentary and observations on the genre, adding another layer of humor. “It is a ‘feel good’ show that allows you to escape the real world for a couple hours. It also has a ton of hilarious characters so it should be really fun for our student actors to perform,” said Mr Myers.
Like every musical performed in the past, the audience can anticipate a fun and entertaining performance making it hard to miss. “People should come to the Drowsy Chaperone because the show is full of thrilling dance numbers along with huge comedy scenes. Not only that but all aspects of the show truly bring the love of musical theater to life,” said freshman Hank Durfee.
As the spotlight shifts from the world of The Drowsy Chaperone to the bustling reality of student life, the challenge emerges: juggling the demands of rehearsals with the responsibilities of schoolwork. “Rehearsals are every single day for about three hours. They are pretty draining so finding the motivation when you get home to do more hours of homework can be hard,” Hanah Reid said.
The winter is a busy time of year for school work with the JRP, ACTs and SATs on top of midterms and even weekly unit tests. “You have to take it day by day and you have to know which one is the priority,” senior Drew Bench said. “For example, the night before an off book rehearsal, my priority was over school, memorizing my lines. Obviously if I have a big test the next day, school becomes the priority.”
Despite the challenges faced, with their busy schedules students have found ways to get their work done. “A regular rehearsal is from 3 to 6 PM and already that takes up a huge amount of time after school to get work done,” said Hank Durfee. “But as I adapt to the different time slots, I’ve found ways to manage my schoolwork.”
