Freshman Matt Nobles opened the gate and walked up the cobblestone path to the house. He rang the doorbell and prepared himself for his mission. As the door slowly opened, an elderly man appeared. The boy reached inside his pocket and, with a practiced tone, asked, “Can I have something bigger and better than this toothpick?”
On Oct. 29, the drama department held a “Bigger or Better” challenge as a team-bonding activity. Each group of around six students started off with a penny and went door to door in three Saratoga neighborhoods asking for anything bigger or better than what they already received. The winning group attained a microwave, a vacuum cleaner, and a mailbox.
“The Bigger or Better challenge is just a really fun way to bond and it’s always fun to see what people get,” Nobles said.
In addition to the “Bigger or Better” challenge, the drama department hosted an interactive murder mystery dinner fundraiser, scheduled for Nov. 18 in the Thermond Drama Center. Students who purchase a ticket will enjoy dinner while solving a murder mystery. The proceeds from this fundraiser will go straight to the drama department.
Around Thanksgiving time, the drama department will also be having “Theater Thanksgiving.”
“Since the drama deparment is like a family, we like to get together and do this event,” drama club president Penny Burgess said. Theater Thanksgiving’ involves everyone getting together and then being split into smaller groups. The smaller groups then each get assigned a course to provide and in the end, all the groups come together and have a Thanksgiving feast together that usually takes place a few days before Thanksgiving.
Fun activities aside, auditions for the spring musical will held in mid-November. The production “South Pacific” will be a collaborative effort among drama teacher Karin Babbitt, music theory and choir teacher Jim Yowell, band and orchestra teacher Michael Boitz and principal’s secretary Sue Dini.
Babbitt will direct the musical while Yowell will be handling the music and Boitz will be conducting the orchestra. Dini will be choreographing.
“Because ‘South Pacific’ is about a navy in the South Pacific, Ms. Babbitt wants to get a political message out of it so it will be a lot about how the south Pacific was destroyed,” Burgess said. “It’s going to be realistic and darker version of ‘South Pacific.’”