Drama works hard on fall play while hosting murder mystery fundraiser and deciding on spring musical

October 14, 2011 — by Lillian Chen

Having continuously worked hard on the fall play “Tartuffe,” drama students were very excited for the debut of their work on Oct. 20, 22 and 23.

Having continuously worked hard on the fall play “Tartuffe,” drama students were very excited for the debut of their work on Oct. 20, 22 and 23.

The fall play’s cast features Josh Harris, Mitchell McGuire, Ariella Yendler, Annelise Nussbacher, Penny Burgess, Valerie Peterson, Marshall Westall, Blake Propach and Jonathan Oh.

The play “Tartuffe” is a comedy that was written by a French playwright named Moliere in 1664. The play is centered around the character Tartuffe, who is a hypocritical man attempting to extinguish the happiness of Orgon, who took Tartuffe in as a house guest.

Orgon is a man who believes everyone is good and does not view Tartuffe’s true being as Tartuffe takes advantage of Orgon’s hospitality. Throughout the play, Orgon’s family attempts to devise a plan to demonstrate to Orgon what type of person Tartuffe truly is with his antics.

“The biggest difficulty is learning all of the lines in verse, but we’re all having a good time,” Burgess said. “It’s going to be a hilarious play, one of the funniest we’ve ever done.” The set of “Tartuffe” is also going to be gilded and gold with two large chandeliers.

A new twist with the fall play is that there will be boxes of seats on the actual stage that will be auctioned off.

“Some lucky audience members will be able to sit on the seats on the stage, watch from these seats, and actually be interacting with by the cast of the play throughout the show,” said Burgess.

Rehearsing every day after school, the cast had been practicing in the Thermond Drama Center but moved rehearsals to the McAfee Center for longer periods of time from around 3:30 to 7 p.m. Eventually, rehearsals began lasting until 9 p.m. around the week before opening night, affectionately referred to by the drama department as “hell week.”

Running into some minor issues through the process of “Tartuffe,” the costumes turned out to be a greater challenge than expected.

“Makeup and hair designs are going to be like a modern French Renaissance with some neon colors,” said Burgess. “We’re also supposed to have large wigs which are hard to find, but our costumes are going to be really outrageous and big.”

Students have been learning a lot from Karin Babbitt, who is the new drama teacher and also the director for the fall play, and her guidance.

“I’ve found her a great and talented director who really knows what she’s doing,” Burgess said. “She gives us a lot of useful direction, makes sure we know each moment, and really helps guide the show on its way.”

The rest of the year

The spring musical will be “South Pacific,” a production set during World War II that focuses on an American nurse who falls in love with a French plantation owner with a dark past.

In addition to working on the fall play and deciding the spring musical, the drama department has also found a fun and unique way to raise money. They will be holding a murder mystery dinner fundraiser on Oct. 28 inside the Thermond Drama Center.

People will be sitting around a table with their ticket having dinner and around them there will be a murder mystery, and at the end of the night, the audience can solve the mystery. Some drama club members have volunteered and will be playing the roles of waiters and bartenders for the night.

“We’re only going to have a few rehearsals because it’s going to be mostly improvised,” said Burgess.

Tickets to this dinner will be around $30, and all the money will go to the drama club.

“This year started out a bit shaky,” Burgess said. “It took us all a bit to adjust to the new regulations with a new teacher, but I think we’re all getting into the new situation and finding out there’s a whole lot more good points this year than we thought.”

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