Photo Credit: Mia Frenduto[/caption]OHS Theatre’s A Christmas Carol opened on November 20 without a hitch and swept the audience away with its miraculous and touching storyline. A Christmas Carol has been performed for over 100 years, but only the ability of great actors like the actors at OHS can really bring this story of redemption to life. With a new perspective, a bigger stage production, and a mesh of C.W. Stanford and OHS student actors, this play is unmatched by any previous production. A Christmas Carol will be showing on November 21 and November 22 at 7 pm and November 23 at 2 pm. It is highly recommended that everyone in the community attend.
A Christmas Carol was originally a book by Charles Dickens, published in 1843, that was adapted into a play later in the nineteenth century. The story follows a grumpy, greedy, money-driven old miser named Scrooge (Luke Taylor), who is visited by his former business partner, Jacob Marley (Miriam Carr), and three spirits of Christmas--the Ghost of Christmas Past (Erin Burgner), Christmas Present (Hunter Moser), and Christmas Future (Maleke Moore). Through them, Scrooge learns that money has cost him more than it is worth and living life to the fullest means receiving and giving the love of others. Attached to this, there is a smaller, but just as significant, plot where Scrooge learns that the man who works for him, Bob Cratchit (Robert Piscitelli), and his family are in need because Tiny Tim (Brenna Mehl), their youngest son, is sickly. This drastically changes Scrooge’s demeanor as well.
All of the lead actors did extremely well in bringing their characters to life. Taylor plays a wonderfully grumpy Scrooge and will truly make you hope that Scrooge can see the error of his ways. Alongside of him, Piscitelli will bring you to tears in some parts of the production and was probably the most powerful onstage presence. Other minor roles were very powerful as well, especially the middle school actors that were lent to the OHS stage for this production. Mehl as Tiny Tim moved the story in a more positive direction towards the end of the play. Three of the funniest actors on stage were Moser, playing Christmas Present, Tyler Rubio, playing Fezziwig, a former employer of Scrooge, and Mrs. Fezziwig, played by Nunna Noe. They had the audience rolling in their seats, gasping for air.
The set and production values were also incredible, thanks to the OHS theatre department’s backstage crew. The efforts of the crew and manager Molly Burke were represented very well in the show. There were various parts of the play that highlighted the abilities of the stage crew. For example, there is a scene in the beginning of the play where the ghost of Marley finds Scrooge in his bedroom. This is accomplished through eerie noises, fog, perfect lighting, and glow-in-the-dark effects. There is also a scene where Christmas Future, a huge, dark puppet built by the FFA department, is introduced to the stage. This, the most powerful and frightening scene of the whole play, is accomplished through an intricate system of fog machines, blue LED lights, and interesting sound effects. This scene requires the whole theater to be pitch black and will rock the audience to their core.
Orange High’s theatre department is preparing to put on the first play of the school year, with rehearsals for the show already underway. The play, Charles Dickens’ classic tale A Christmas Carol, is set to open this November, and the cast could not be more excited to bring this exciting tale to life. Featuring senior Luke Taylor as Ebenezer Scrooge, the grouchy old miser with a hatred of Christmas, the cast is the largest to date of all Orange theatre productions.
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photo credit: Jared Taylor[/caption]“I really like the bigger cast,” says sophomore Olivia Herrera, who portrays the role of Emily Cratchit in the production. Herrera added that she enjoyed meeting new actors, as it allows the rehearsal process to have more fun and energy.
Another exciting feature of the Carol cast is the addition of middle school age actors to portray the younger characters in the show. These young actors from C.W. Stanford have taken on roles such as Young Scrooge (Sam Loch) and Tiny Tim (Brenna Mehl). This combination of the two school’s theatre departments has never been done before, and many of the theatre department’s most active participants are enthusiastic about this experiment.
The cast of Carol are not the only participants committed to creating a great performance. Junior Molly Burke serves as the production’s stage manager, meaning that she assists the director in handling the backstage and technical aspects of a show, as well as assisting with rehearsals. Burke is most excited to begin work on the production’s Victorian-era set.
“Right now, going through rehearsal requires a lot of visualization of the final product,” says Burke. “It will be nice to finally see in person what we have all been picturing in our heads for so long.” All in all, the outlook for the theatre department’s first show of the season seems extremely bright, perhaps proving that it is never too early to get into the Christmas spirit.
A Christmas Carol will be performed at 7:00 pm on November 20, 21, and 22, with a matinée performance at 2:00 pm on November 23. Tickets will be sold for $10.
Photo Credit: Amanda Tavares[/caption]The lights dim in the theater, the curtains open, and audience members’ gazes turn to the actress standing on the stage. For Meghan O’Shaughnessy, a 16-year-old junior at Orange, this is her dream. The rush she gets from performing live in front of an audience first attracted her when she was a child, and she still enjoys it today.
O’Shaughnessy has been involved in theatre since she was eight or nine years old. She acted in elementary school plays at Pathways, playing Wendy in Peter Pan at one point. She continued participating in theatre at C.W. Stanford Middle School, where she acted in every play the school put on, from La Belle et la Bête to Watch Your Back for Stingy Jack! At OHS, she’s in Theatre Proficient, the equivalent of Theatre III and IV. She has been in OHS plays like Hairapy Sessions and The Taming of the Shrew, and plans to audition for future plays if she has time.
Broadway musicals are one of O’Shaughnessy’s obsessions. She would “love to be on Broadway,” but she “can’t sing or dance,” she said. As ambitious as her plans are, she knows that it is difficult to make it as an actor, so she plans to double major in theatre and business. She expects to go to UNC-Chapel Hill, although she dreams of going to Ithaca College in New York. O’Shaughnessy works at the Maple View Country Store, so she has been hard-pressed to find time to act in school plays this year.
As an actress, O’Shaughnessy has many other actresses whom she admires. When asked to name one, she couldn’t help but name two--Samantha Barks and Sutton Foster. She had no trouble thinking of her favorite Broadway show---Newsies, which recently closed.
O’Shaughnessy loves theatre for more than just the rush. She also loves the theatre community at OHS. Plus, it’s “nice to not be you” for a while, O’Shaughnessy added.
Photo Credit: Jared Taylor[/caption]Members of the Improvicons, an OHS improv troupe created near the end of fall in 2013, have big plans for next year. Run by theatre teacher Jared Taylor and captained by senior Anastasia Zitko, the troupe hopes to become bigger and perform more shows. Currently, it has performed at a Peace Club concert and PTSO variety show. It plans to perform at the theatre awards night as well.
Taylor summarized what members of the troupe do as “[trying] to create funny circumstances off the top of their head.” Improv, or improvisation, is the art of acting without having a script or lines. Improv actors bounce off each other to establish scenes, working together to make a plotline make sense.
The name of the Improvicons is based off of the Decepticons in the Transformers universe. The logo, a mask, is a modified version of the Decepticon mask.
The troupe practices every Friday afternoon in the theatre room. Members play two types of games to hone their skills -- short-form games and long-form games. Short-form games, the type used when they perform at events, let the audience interact more with the performers and shorten the length of the improv pieces. An example of a short-form game is the dating game, where actors pretending to be contestants in a dating game are given personalities or qualities, then another actor (the bachelor or bachelorette) asks questions in order to guess who they are. Long-form games let actors stay in character for longer periods of time, forcing them to improvise constantly. An example of a long-form game is Armando Diaz, where actors try to tell stories and keep elements of the stories consistent.
Zitko said that being captain means she is “kind of like the leader of the group.” She has no “special authority,” but is a “leader figure.” She helps organize events and plan activities. She joined the troupe “as soon as I knew there was going to be a new group in theatre” so she could improve her improvisation skills. She became leader after a vote.
Taylor created the Improvicons in order to “have a different sort of theatre group” and “to reach a different group of people.” Members auditioned near the end of November. He compared auditions to “auditioning for a play,” because current members will have to audition again to be members next year. He hopes that SMART Lunch will be approved because it will be “a lot better for” the troupe and it can “do shows during that time.”
Jay Huskins, a junior on the troupe, said he decided to join because “I always enjoy doing improv in class. I thought it would be really fun with a concentrated group.” Also, some of his friends were auditioning. He “would encourage people to go and see” the troupe, and said that “we’re planning to have a lot of the kinks worked out by next year.” He appreciates being in the troupe because it is “another way to get to know some of the people I already should have been friends with.” Learning improvisational skills has helped him outside of the troupe because it “keeps you quick on your feet.”
Luke Taylor, another junior and member of the troupe, echoed Huskins’ sentiments. He stated, “I’m pretty close to everyone that’s on improv. We’ve kind of become… a family. It won’t be the same next year. We’re going to lose a few, we probably won’t get the same group.” His favorite improv game is the dating game, because the audience likes it and “it’s more consistently funny than most of the games.” He is “really excited about Improvicons’ production next year.”
Zitko said she hopes, after she leaves, that “this group [can] keep improving and having more ideas... I just hope that kind of legacy can continue.”
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.
While in England, the theater group toured London and attended plays. During the trip, Norwood got to taste some of the foods and drinks such as tea with sugar cubes and crumpets, visit tourist sites such as Westminster Abbey and the London Tower, and truly embrace the culture of the UK.
She enjoyed how accommodating all of the public facilities are to tourists and citizens. Interested in traveling abroad, she is very fond of the geographical location of the UK, which would allow her to have easier access to other parts of Europe. She feels that the United States. are too isolated from Europe. History, being one of her favorite subjects in school, is another major influence in Norwood's desire to travel to the UK. The historical buildings, which are centuries old, are very intriguing to her.
Norwood, who is interested in becoming a politician one day, likes the political system in the UK. The aspects that appeal to her include the national healthcare system, the way in which the nation provided for its citizens -- which Norwood got to see while touring the public facilities, and the political unity. She favors the way the UK is able to pass laws faster and compromise on matters due to its unity.
Norwood hopes to attend a prestigious college in the UK, such as Oxford College, one of her top choices. Although her dreams don't lie entirely upon if she makes it into a prestigious school, she aspires to attend one and study politics, journalism, or other sources of media. After living five years in the UK, she would be able to become a citizen and pursue a career there.
During her free time, Norwood enjoys watching TV. Some of her favorite shows include Supernatural, Star Trek, and Doctor Who. Doctor Who, a TV show established in England, further aroused Norwood's eagerness to travel to the UK. Doctor Who created another possible career avenue for her to take -- T.V. show writing. The UK, having so much to offer to Norwood's adventurous young mind, led to her desire to eventually move to London.
Update 5/14: The performance raised $81 in donations. The drama department and creative writing class each received half of the profit. The drama department will use the money to pay for the 2013-2014 play productions, and the Creative Writing class will use the money to pay for their anthologies.
Original Story: Four student-written and student-directed plays will be presented on May 13 at 6:00 pm in the OHS auditorium. Admission is free, but there’s a suggested donation of $5. The performance is called Epic Episodes, and proceeds will go to the creative writing and theatre classes. The plays were written by Creative Writing II students and directed by students in Theatre IV. Actors and actresses in the plays are from Theatre III and Theatre IV.
The first play, Not My Cup of Tea, was written by Maggie Cummings, Haylee Burton, and Aly Cavedo. “I think [the fact that students are performing my play] is kind of cool. Plays are a lot harder to write,” said Cummings.
Not My Cup of Tea features two brothers, Emmett (Zane Davie) and Blake (Dylan Perry), who both have strokes of good luck after drinking from cups of tea. Lauren Asbury, Paige Wilcox, and Damien Thomas play smaller roles. William Adams directed the play.
Adams said that he has a “laid back” directing style. “I let them read through it... then I do blocking. [I] let them do what they need to do.” Adams believes in “actor’s freedom.” The slogan Adams created for the play is, “Two brothers come to a seemingly unimportant choice in life, but it changes everything.”
The second play, The Choices We Make, was written by Alexis Prebula, Brittany Hester, and Katelyn Baity. Abby Peel is the play’s director. The play stars Nycol Lyons and Wilcox. Many other people in the class are extras. Some male names in the play were changed because the Theatre III and IV classes have few male actors, but Prebula said that “there’s no problem with that.” “I don’t care,” Baity added.
The play is about a girl named Melanie (Wilcox) who is bullied by a group of students. One student, Brianna (Lyons), defends her against the bullies, but after an unexpected event occurs, Melanie is left with no friends.
Peel said, “Directing a play to me is like when you know your house and you get up in the middle of the night to get ice cream... and you walk into a coffee table. It’s a learning experience and I’m excited that I’m learning.” She called directing “unnerving.” Her directing style is “learn[ing] as you go.” Asked to summarize her play in one sentence, Peel said, “Bullying is bad.”
The third play is A Crescendo of Dreams. It was directed by Perry and written by Tyler Blalock, Paul Fox, and Tiffany Connolly. The stars are Peel, Davie, Adams, and Asbury.
Fox was “a little worried” about seeing his play be performed on stage. “I think it [requires] a great deal of courage. It’s a great endeavour on both sides.”
A Crescendo of Dreams is about a group of patients in a hospital who share a lucid dream each night. In the dream, all of their injuries and disabilities are healed.
Perry said that he is “very excited to direct,” and his directing style is “listen[ing] to what my actors think is best.” Asked to preview the play, he said, “Akin to the style of Inception, A Crescendo of Dreams is a dramatic piece full of plot twists that keeps you thinking.”
The final play being performed is Solaramic. It was directed by Davie and written by Beth Bryan, Meleah Travis, and Maddie Norwood. Solaramic stars Perry, Asbury, and Amber Keller.
Travis said, “I’m excited [to see] how they portray the play. I just want to see the changes they made.”
The play is about two businesspeople, Lauren (Asbury) and Matt (Perry), who meet on a subway and become friends, then discover a dark secret that might tear their friendship apart. A businesswoman (Keller) appears in scenes to provide comedic relief.
Davie did not know what type of directing style he has because “this is my first time directing... I’m going to try to be as laid back as I can.” Asked to write a slogan for his play, he said, “My play is about enemies becoming friends.”
They will depart from the Raleigh-Durham International Airport on American Airlines Flight 174 at 6:45 pm EST, and will arrive in London at approximately 6:55 am BST. EF Tours is organizing the trip, and Richard Polley is the theatre group’s tour guide.
Jamie Gorski, a former CWS English teacher and play director, planned the field trip. He spoke at a meeting for students and parents going to London on March 21, giving detailed information about the itinerary for the trip.
On April 2, students and parents will arrive at Flight 174’s terminal by 3:45 pm EST, and the flight will leave a few hours later. The plane trip will last seven hours, and the plane will land at 6:55 am BST on April 3. The theatre group will visit Platform 9 ¾, a destination made famous by the Harry Potter book series, and take a walking tour of London.
The next day, April 4, the group will go to Westminster Abbey and participate in a theatre workshop. They will attend a matinee performance of a play at the West End, but Gorski is not sure what the play will be.
On April 5, group members will tour London again, see the Tower of London, have tea, go to the British Museum, and see another play.
April 6 is the group’s last full day in London. They will have a free day, where groups of students and parents can do a variety of activities, then they will watch a third play.
On April 7, they will leave London on American Airlines Flight 173 at 11 am BST from the Heathrow Airport, and they will arrive in the Raleigh-Durham International Airport at 2:45 pm EST.
Gorski had a morbid outlook on the trip, stating, “I hope we don’t die.” Jared Taylor, the OHS theatre teacher, said, “Last time I was [in London] my entire focus was on Shakespeare. I can’t wait to go back and see more modern stuff.”
Maggie Cummings, a sophomore, said the trip will be “cold but exciting.” Sarah Oechsle, also a sophomore, called it “exuberating.”
Anne Purcell, CWS principal, said that she is “very excited for our students to be able to experience this trip.” She is going on the trip herself, and she stated, “I have never been, so I’m looking forward to all the sights and experiences I have read about... It’s a wonderful opportunity.”
The OHS theatre group has been memorizing lines, setting the stage, making costumes, and much more these last few months. Jared Taylor, the theatre director, has worked hard to make sure this show has the perfect cast. The play contains thirteen main parts with seven helping parts.
Lucentio has two helpful servants that aid him throughout the play named Tranio (Rob Piscitelli) and Biondello (Meghan O’Shaughnessy). Petruchio (Luke Taylor) with his sidekick Grumio (Anastasia Zitko) enter at the end of the first act and Petruchio becomes a suitor of Katherine. Later, Lucentio’s father and not-so-real father enter to further complicate things. Vincentio is played by Lauren Asbury and fake Vincentio is played by Justin Fox. There are also six servants who appear throughout the play portrayed by Devon Allen, Kelsey Andrews, Sarah Leverette, Nycol Lyons, Hannah Phillips, and Indy Reid-Shaw.
Throughout the play there are many puns and examples of dramatic irony. Men are dressed as women and women are dressed as men. This entertaining play is meant to draw many laughs from the audience. The play runs from March 14 to 16 at 7 pm. Tickets are $6 for students and $8 for adults.
This Fall, the drama group, led by Jared Taylor, is putting on a play called Bang, Bang, You're Dead. "It's a very strong piece," Mr. Taylor says about the play, which is set to premiere October 25th in the school's auditorium. The show will also be performed on October 26th and October 27th at 7 pm. The play is free to the public.The play is about a young man named Josh, portrayed by freshman Rob Piscitelli. The plot takes place in Josh's jail cell, where he is haunted by the five students he shot and killed during a school shooting. The ghosts from his past demand an answer as to why they were killed, and as it turns out bullying plays a major role in why Josh did what he did.
Mr. Taylor is excited to work with this play. He explained that he chose this play because it's a powerful piece about a subject that we see a lot in today's society, like the school shooting at Columbine, and the more recent Colorado shooting. The play has a good anti-violence message and focuses on anti-bullying.
Thirty people showed up to audition for a part in the upcoming play. The students auditioning had to memorize a two minute long monologue they later had to perform in front of the rest of the group. This resulted in a rough draft of the casting list. Some of the people had to come back later for callbacks and the final cast list was posted the next day. Mr. Taylor thinks this is a great play for the actors and actresses to be in because it fits them well and is challenging. It is completely free to come and see the play and it was also free to produce and set up.
Jared Taylor, the theatre teacher at OHS, thought that the picnic was a good way to “celebrate […] the start of what's going to be an amazing year.” He promised that this year’s Drama Club will be bigger than last year’s. “This year for Drama Club, we're changing things up and having workshops, guest speakers, and a bigger and better awards night at the end of the year.”
The excited atmosphere at the picnic was partly due to the many joyful reunions that took place as the new freshmen met friends they used to know from the drama program at C.W. Stanford Middle School. At the first Drama Club meeting, there were no freshmen from A.L. Stanback or Gravelly Hill Middle School. One sophomore, Nick Vassello, said that, “[What I liked most about the picnic was] getting to see my middle school friends that I left last year. I have missed them ever since.” A freshman, Mia Frenduto, agreed. She said, “My favorite part of the picnic was getting to see upperclassmen that I never see.” She joined theatre so that she could do what she loves to do with other people who share her interests. Meghan O’Shaughnessy, another freshman, also enjoyed meeting students she knew from Stanford. “It was great to spend time with old friends and meet new ones, all while talking about something I love.”
[caption id="attachment_126" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Maggie Cummings, Lauren Asbury, Anastasia Zitko, and Caleb Tolin hang out at the Drama Club Picnic."]
[/caption]Food at the picnic included macaroni and cheese, Bojangles biscuits, fried chicken, doughnuts, brownies, and cookie cake. For drinks, students could choose from a wide variety of sodas. Some foods were snatched up quickly, like the Bojangles biscuits and cookie cake. Students who were near the end of the line waiting to get food grumbled when they saw that some of the food was already gone.
An impromptu birthday celebration for one of the juniors in Drama Club, Lauren Asbury, resulted in the distribution of more cake. The Drama Club sang “Happy Birthday” to Asbury and gave her hugs. After the celebration, the club took a group picture, capturing their festivities on film.