Students Take Over Fall Play

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Art credits to Wanxing Lu!

Shameen Abubakar ‘17

For many, plays are laughter and romance, fear and suspense, and heartbreak and celebration, all blended together to create a spectacular performance. The Ridge Drama Club has been creating these kinds of plays for years now in their annual fall productions. Though these do not incite the thrilled receptions that the musical receives, the fall plays have still always been a wonderful success. Last year’s play, The Brothers’ Grimm Spectaculathon, attracted a massive audience because of its humor and silly wit. Following in its footsteps is this year’s production, An Evening of Funny Shorts.

In previous years, one central story line dictated the show; in a departure from tradition, there will be five separate short plays in the 2015 production. The plays include Mutually Assured Destruction, Sure Thing, The Role of Della, 14 Reasons Not To Be In A Play, and Reservations.

Mutually Assured Destruction centers around pairs of relatable, amusing siblings from the 1960 are to the 2010’s. Sure Thing is about two strangers meeting, but with a catch: every time one of the two makes an offensive or counterproductive comment, a bell rings and resets their encounter.

The Role of Della is a hilarious script where one woman has to perform crazy antics in order to audition for a production. 14 Reasons Not To Be In A Play is exactly what it sounds like; you may ask yourself why the Ridge Drama Club has decided to inform its audiences why they should not see a play, but you’ll have to watch the play to find out. Lastly, Reservations sets the scene for a romantic date between two strangers, each distracted by different personas – their innocent persona, their proper persona, their lazy persona – blabbering in their ears and attempting to instruct them on the best path to romantic success.

Mrs. Kern, who runs the Drama Club and directs the Fall Play, describes this year’s play as “hilarious, relatable, and fast paced.”

Interestingly, this year’s play will also contain three student-directed segments. Usually, one student Director and one student Assistant Director would be chosen to help Mrs. Kern direct the play. This year, since the show contains five separate short plays, there are three student directors who receive free rein for their designated performances. Thus, this year’s play is heavily based on student work due to the student production team.

Mrs. Kern herself is “looking forward to seeing how the student directors are going to produce these pieces.”

Besides the Production team, there are a wide range of actors that will be doing hilarious stunts and skits, creating unique characters, and giving the play their all for the rest of Ridge to enjoy.

Behind the scenes, the Stage Crew has a huge role. Stage Crew is mainly split into two groups: construction crew and light and sound crew. On the day of the performance, crew members work on props, moving sets during performances, and setting up microphones for the cast. The cast and actors would be helpless without the crew that does so much backbone work for the Fall Play as well as the Spring Musical.

Adam Miesner ‘16, the Head Stage Manager, spoke about his role in the play: “My job is to be able to know everything that is going on onstage during the show. Some of the main things I do include blocking where each actor or actress needs to be during rehearsals, keeping the cast and crew up to date on important rehearsal and show dates, and calling the lighting and sound cues on show night.”

Rehearsals take place 4 days a week; most performers come in for two days to practice for their short play, but some who play multiple roles are present on all four days. Rehearsals include read-throughs (where students practice lines and sharpen their acting), improvisation activities, and other team-building strategies to perfect the skills needed for theatre, like voice projecting or enunciating words. Students are working very hard to make sure they look presentable and entertaining for their production.

Together, all these students will be combining their different skills to produce An Evening of Funny Shorts for Ridge High School. Be sure to check out your peers’ work on November 21 and 22 in the PAC!