Students and a teacher involved in creating the school play were asked about the process of producing a high school play.
BVN is currently working on an adaptation of a medieval morality play called “Everyone.” Out of the 40 students who auditioned for “Everyone” only 13 ended up being cast in the production. Theater director Rachel Cain, decided who would be part of this production.
“I’ll be really honest, I’m very good at casting,” Cain said. “I like it, and I think I put people in the right places and sometimes it’s not for the reasons you think. It really is a puzzle.”
Junior Addison Irey is the lead in “Everyone.” The most difficult parts of creating this play are line memorization and finding agreement with the rest of the cast, Irey said.
“Every time we’d have to rewrite it, the lines would change,” Irey said. “Then I’d have to work on remembering the new lines and not saying the old ones which is difficult when you’re trying to memorize lines. I would also say [it’s difficult] for people to agree with each other and also make sure that all the scenes tied into the same story cause we have 15 people writing it which made it a little more difficult.”
Irey also said that the story needs to be coherent. Sophomore Gabe Baethke is the dramaturge of the play, meaning he supplies the interpretation for the director and actors in the play. He agreed and added it was hard to write dialogue in a way that worked with the plot and actors.
“The most difficult part I would say is dialogue because unlike other forms of writing, everything must have some purpose,” Baethke said.
Cain said the best part of directing the school play is the community.
“[The best part of directing the play is] the commradery that is built, the trust that is built, the community where people feel safe and seen,” Cain said. “It’s just different than school.” According to Cain, creating “Everyone” has taken the whole school year and was a new experience for her.
“It is the first time I’ve ever [created a play] or attempted to do it or even thought about it,” Cain said. “We started creating it day one. We just sat at a round table and talked through everything [inlcuding] what the characters should be named. We have been writing it ever since.”
Opening night is Friday, Oct. 27 and starts at 7:00 p.m.
