Ridge High School’s drama club got… quirky. It put on a show that made the most of every cast member and every set piece involved, while bringing to life the dark and humorous, principled and weird moods characteristic of the playwright Oscar Wilde. This fall, Ridge High School presented its rendition of “Telling Wilde Tales.”
After the dress rehearsal, open to senior citizens and staff, took place on Thursday, November 21st, the performances spanned from the evening of Friday November 22nd, to a matinee and evening show on Saturday the 23rd. It was a weekend full of varying levels of energy from the cast and crew. A small letdown—the audience size during these performances—did not become a setback as the cast and crew put on an energetic production for the audience, however small, to enjoy.
Director Mrs. Kern explains her outlook on the audience: “I think because it wasn’t a “name” show, and the fact that it also wasn’t a “feel good” kind of play, people were not as inclined to come and see it, as they might have been if we did something like “The Odd Couple”. The fact that the Ridge Football team had a home championship game the same night that we opened didn’t help either, but there wasn’t anything we could do about that.”
However small the audience may have been, Mrs. Kern admitted success in that “the feedback I got from the parents and audience members was all positive”. Those who did attend the performances did enjoy their experience; the time and effort that went into the show paid off.
This unique play does not follow one main storyline; in fact, it encompasses seven different “tales”, which are threaded together by the narrator, also called the “Soul,” played by Raghav Mathur ‘15. The common theme throughout the tales is that they each contain a lesson. Wilde sometimes uses irony in the show to highlight the fact that there is a moral, exemplified in one playlet in which the closing line, spoken by a manipulative “friend,” is “one always suffers from being generous.”
However, the concept of the play is more complicated than just the understanding derived from the Soul’s navigation of the tales. Veronica Saleeb ’15 explains, “Sometimes when you watched the play, the scenes wouldn’t make sense at first…until the whole play comes together.” Random and isolated as the mini-plays may seem, the fuzzy understanding of the show is sharpened upon experiencing the play as a whole. An aim of the show is to make us recognize faults in ourselves and see the sometimes disastrous impacts they can have (for this show, they usually, morbidly, result in death, a point that did not go unnoticed by the audience, who began to treat the frequent deaths as comic relief after a while; a lot of things really do go terribly wrong for the characters in the tales).
Mrs. Kern took a unique approach by making the show ensemble-heavy. She said that although scheduling was “challenging” at times with such a large cast, she is “glad we were able to utilize so much talent from Ridge”. Even those who only spoke a few words in the show still received ample stage-time, literally becoming the set at times and helping to create the ambience of the scene. The cast created the units of an ocean, a house, machinery, flowers, trees, a cave, and much more, really supplementing the crew’s sets and bringing the show to life.
Mrs. Kern also enlisted the help of students as directors; upperclassmen Madeline Kraft ‘14, Andy Barrasso ‘14, and Jacki Colombari ‘14 were all responsible for directing one or more scenes. Mrs. Kern felt “particularly proud of the three student directors” and regarded this method as a “valuable experience to get more than one take on how to look at and direct the show.” These students got to try their hand at filling Mrs. Kern’s shoes and taking creative license for shaping their scenes.
Andy reflected on his experience, saying he was honored to have the experience and excited that he got to work with “a talented and humorous cast”. Although directing could be frustrating for him at times, “it was such a memorable experience for me to not only work with the cast but also get to know them. We had so many great times from messing up lines to the usual ‘sports’ hand sign.”
He, like most of those involved in the play, enjoyed the inside jokes that thrived during rehearsals and that even made a brief cameo during one of the performances onstage. Mrs. Kern also recognized the leadership of some other key members of the cast and crew. “I really have to give props to the seniors involved in “Telling Wilde Tales,”” she said. “They led by example and kept the energy positive and fun. I really appreciated the heart and soul they put into the rehearsals and performances.”
The crew, headed by Mr. Stewart, worked hard to construct a simple and practical set that included two wooden platforms equipped with ladders, and wooden structures such as boxes that helped add to interesting scenes. This play presented a unique situation: the cast, rather than the crew, was to make use of the set pieces onstage themselves to help the show move more quickly. That being said, the crew was ever-present backstage and was diligent in making sure the sets move smoothly and efficiently. Caroline Ingal ’14 in particular worked efficiently backstage as the props manager. Stage manager Mackenzie Hayman ’15 and backstage manager Jad Ablouseiman ’15 helped to promote the unity of the cast and the crew and bring the scenes together into a cohesive production. Mr. Kern and Tim Hultman ’15 helped oversee the light and sound aspect of the show to add to it another layer of interest.
A huge component of this unique production is the body of students and adults whose diligence in preparing the show was summed up perfectly by Jack Abbiatici ’16 at the end of tech week: “tired but ready.” After all the hard work put into the show, the result was a refined show that the drama club could enjoy putting on for the audience.
I was lucky enough to be in the cast of “Telling Wilde Tales”, and I interviewed many cast-mates, crew members, and even Mrs. Kern to gauge everyone’s feelings on the experience behind the scenes of the show. They had some interesting reflections, memories, and tidbits to share:
- Mrs. Kern (director): “I believe TWT was the most sophisticated play Ridge Drama Club has produced since I started here, and the cast and crew did it much justice!”
- Anthony Ballero ’17 (crew): “I felt like I was met with open arms in drama club… it was fun, and I was happy.”
- Raghav Mathur ’15 (cast) “Theater is an amazing activity to get involved in simply because of how easy it is to make friends and grow close to your cast mates. The sheer amount of trust involved is really unmatched by most other extracurriculars.”
- Favorite memory of Natura Sant Foster ’16 (crew): “When we sang I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys with Stew.”
- Erin Herzog ’17 (cast): “As a freshman, it’s hard to get to know the upperclassmen…meeting the upperclassmen was a great experience and they’re all super-nice and amazing and fantabulous and #perfection.”
- · Advice from Rohin Verma ’17: “Join the drama club.”
Visit our photos page to see shots of “Telling Wilde Tales”!