Photo credit: Mia Frenduto and Hannah Phillips[/caption]Zombie Prom may star a dead character, but the show itself is quite the opposite. It’s lively and fun, and it reveals a never-before-seen side of many actors who are regulars on the OHS stage. For example, junior Luke Taylor, a staple in the Orange theatre program, is secretly an accomplished singer with a rich, deep voice. OHS Assistant Principal Will Okun has a voice-over cameo as a television announcer, and other teachers have roles on stage. Giving teachers a chance to act with students is a new idea that worked out successfully. Taylor hopes to give more teachers roles in upcoming plays. The performances are Friday at 7 pm, Saturday at 2 and 7 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm in the auditorium. Tickets are $10.
The story follows the love story of Jonny Warner (Caleb Tolin) and Toffee (Anastasia Zitko). Jonny is an orphan who enrolls at Enrico Fermi High School, a school focused on nuclear power since it’s close to a plant. He is immediately targeted by the principal, Delilah Strict (Nunna Noe) for wearing a jacket with his name on it that’s missing the “h” often found in his name. He meets Toffee, falls in love, and the rest is history.
A few months later, the story picks up again. Toffee’s parents, played by teachers Alia Granger and Robert Griffin, tell her not to date Jonny. Under pressure, she breaks up with him and he kills himself by jumping into the nuclear waste dump near the school. Toffee is extremely upset that he’s dead, and after three weeks of mourning her friends start telling her to move on and find another date. The senior prom is coming up, and everyone but her is obsessed with it.
She doesn’t want to move on yet, however, and wishes that Jonny could come back. Her wish comes true one day, when Jonny pops out of the ground in front of her and tells her he came back from the dead because he heard her call out to him. Confused and upset, she rejects him, and he urges her to reconsider. Jonny also attempts to return to the school, but Strict won’t let him because she doesn’t want a zombie bringing disorder to her highly-regarded facility.
A secondary love story, that is tied to the first in a startling way revealed in the play’s final moments, stars Strict and Expose editor Eddie Flagrante (Luke Taylor). Eddie is a journalist who will do anything to get a story, and he jumps at the chance to cover Jonny’s struggles as a zombie. When he meets Strict, he realizes that she’s a former lover from high school. Both Taylor and Noe give standout performances, and their characters are two of the best characters in the play.
Noe described her character as the “zany, loud, tyrannical dictator of her school” who is “in charge” and “tells it like it is, or at least how she thinks it is.” She said Strict and Eddie have a “complicated” relationship. Taylor said that Eddie is a “flagrant” editor whose “main purpose at the start of the show is to get his stories.”
Director Jared Taylor thought Friday’s performance went “really, really well,” although the “first night always has its share of hiccups.” One of those hiccups were some mic problems that mainly affected Zitko. Lights and sound operator Jay Huskins said that “we will rectify any mistakes” for the Saturday and Sunday shows. Other technical aspects were brilliant, especially the lighting, and the sound problems were fixed by the second half of the show. Tolin said that “people should come to see the tech. The lighting for this show is so cool. There were thousands of dollars spent on the equipment that we are using and it shows.” Noe thought the first show was “amazing” and Assistant Director Maggie Cummings said that she believes “Nunna and Luke are two of the best characters in the entire show.” OHS alumna Katherine Kirkman called the show “very good.”
Taylor was “super excited” about the teacher involvement and he also emphasized that many aspects of the show were run by students, including the band, lights, sound, and make-up. Along with the aforementioned teacher cameos, English teacher Ashley Benners appeared as Sheila, a secretary.
Joseph Piscitelli was escorted on the field by his mother Debbie Piscitelli. Bailey Smith, OHS writing teacher Brooke Smith’s daughter, assisted with the crowning of Mr. Panther. She was escorted onto the field by last year’s homecoming queen, Emma Schmid. Piscitelli said, “I am very grateful that the school voted for me and I am very honored… I never thought that I would win!”
The entire senior class voted for Mr. Panther. Seniors were given a ballot on which they would handwrite the first and last name of the person they wanted to be Mr. Panther. The name with the most votes won the title.
Other candidates that were nominated for Mr. Panther Court included Jeffrey Campbell, Matthew Crabtree, Hunter Huffman, Matthew McLaughlin, Patrick Pettiford, Tyler Reitano, Mason Shuler, Caleb Tolin, and Jordan Toney.
pm, is startlingly moving and thought-provoking. It only lasts approximately 45 minutes, but it contains so much emotion and substance that audience members will not realize it was so short. I am not ashamed to admit that I shed a few tears watching this play, so emotion-sensitive viewers may want to bring a couple of tissues. While not explicitly violent, the nature of some of scenes are overwhelming, and as such, I would recommend that children who are elementary school age or younger not see it.I have to confess that I was not sure if I would enjoy this play before I saw it. I figured that a free play meant to combat school bullying would not be one of OHS’s best productions.
I was completely wrong.
From its confusing beginning to its horrifying ending, this play is different than anything that has been performed at OHS in years, if not decades. This is obvious in the play’s first scene. A boy named Josh (Robert Piscitelli) talks to Emily, Katie, Michael, Mattie, and Jesse, five students he killed (Anastasia Zitko, Sydney Defranco, Caleb Tolin, Maggie Cummings, and Lauren Asbury, respectively). They ask why he killed them, and he casually tells each of them why. One person was in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” Another had to die at some point, so he said she “might as well get it over with, right?” The six students then describe what holding a gun feels like, and how it empowers people.
One of the most unusual aspects about this play is that it does not follow a strict timeline. It starts out with Josh talking to the victims of the shooting, then jumps to Josh convincing his parents to let him buy a rifle when he was a child. Throughout the play, the ghosts of the teenagers that Josh killed often jump into the scene to comment on what’s happening or how the shooting has affected Josh’s life. The names of four school shootings- Jonesboro, Springfield, Paducah, and Columbine- are repeated many times during the play. Another phrase that is repeated multiple times in the play is, “So you make your face a mask. A mask that hides your face. A face that hides the pain. A pain that eats your heart. A heart nobody knows.” This is one of my favorite lines from the play because it shows how deep and powerful the play is.
Because the play does not follow a distinct timeline, it does not have a distinct ending. My only criticism of the play is that the ending is uneventful. It is just as strong as the rest of the play, so it is very powerful and interesting, but it does not stand out from the end of other scenes. If the end was not followed by a curtain call, I would not have known that the play was over.
Maggie Cummings said that the premiere of the play “went fine” and that people should come to see it because it is very “enlightening.”
Anastasia Zitko agreed, stating that it was “pretty good,” and people should come because it is “very emotional.” Mr. Taylor, the Director of the play and the theatre teacher, thought that there were a “few hiccups,” but there are “always a few hiccups on opening night.” He said that the “message is so important” and that the play is “powerful.”
I could not agree more with all of these statements. The play was emotional, moving, and heartbreaking. It made me think about violence and school shootings, and it reminded me how easily lives can end. The play is less than an hour long, and there is no price for admission, so anyone who is free Friday or Saturday night should come see it.