Drama dedicates to develop productions

Gripped with fear, junior Madison Emery stepped onto the stage on the opening night for “Jekyll and Hyde.” As she looked into the audience, she slowly grew more nervous. The lights dimmed, and the musical began. Yet once Emery fell into her character, Emma Carew, all her fear disappeared and it all seemed natural.

In early March, the drama department showcased “Jekyll and Hyde,” the musical. However, rather than being light and comedic, this production had a wicked and more sinister touch to it.

“We’ve usually just done comedies and they’re all really light-hearted,” Emery said. “[Jekyll and Hyde] is a lot darker. It’s a lot more intense.”

Through the process of preparing for the performances, there were a few mishaps, like breaking props, the process largely went smoothly and successfully.

“I feel like we definitely had a better director who knew what he was doing, so it was a lot more organized,” Emery said. “We had a really good rehearsal schedule. In general, the whole cast was really in it together. We all wanted this production to really succeed so we all worked together and I think that really contributed to making the production what it was.”

The drama department put in numerous hours into this production and getting it to work out correctly.

“[The amount of time spent practicing] depends on where we are in the process,” senior David Mandell said. “Towards the beginning, [we work] about 15 hours a week. Then we rehearse with more intense hours as the show gets closer, reaching closer to 20 to 25 hours.”

The practices and production of “Jekyll and Hyde” were more professional, according to junior Stefanie Tanaka.

“What happens for practices is you get called for different roles,” Tanaka said. “For dress rehearsals, we practice just as if we were doing a show. We come two hours earlier and we do our hair, makeup and warm-up. When the show came around, it didn’t feel too weird and it was all natural.”

The drama department had professional directors and choreographers for main shows, but there were many student productions in October, late March and early April with the help of people like Ken Ochi for tech work and English teacher Kerry Mohnike for “Noises Off,” according to Mandell.

With the help of new directors and choreographers, the drama department put out “Jekyll and Hyde” for the public to view. Perhaps because of the newly introduced, dark touch to the musical, the audience enjoyed the show immensely.

“[The audience] said it was something they had never seen before, and I got a few people saying it was the best show that they’ve seen at the high school,” Emery said. “I think that’s a lot different from what we’ve had in past year. People always say it’s good, but I kept hearing people say how much they loved the show a week after it ended.”

“Jekyll and Hyde” was only one out of five productions that were and will be performed in the school year of 2010-11. This year, the drama department has produced student productions “The Woman in Black,” “Black Comedy” and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged.” Other productions include “Our Town” and “Noises Off,” which will be produced in June.