With soft melodies from “The Sound of Music” drifting from the theater through the breezeway, the juniors and seniors of the advanced acting class can be found occupying the library after-hours. Inside, among shelves of literature and sleeping computer monitors, they rearrange chairs and tables used by day for studying to make room for glimpses into a post-apocalyptic, technology-run future and a watch-painting factory in 1920s America.
The advanced acting class is currently preparing two plays, “Antigone” and “These Shining Lives,” for performances on alternating nights from Thursday to Sunday, March 10 through 13, in the Alan Harvey Theater.
“Both plays are dramas, but they’re very different dramas,” said junior Saam Niami Jalinous, an actor in “Antigone.”
“Antigone,” a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles around 441 B.C., will be performed on March 10 and 12. The play has been by adapted by the student actors to include new dialogue and a new setting: a post- apocalyptic future where everything is run and monitored by technology.
Niami Jalinous said the rewriting process for the script was difficult and required a lot of time, so the actors did not get their final scripts until around December.
The play stars senior Yael Gordon as Antigone, junior Jakob Armstrong as Creon and senior Eliza Lucas as Eurydice.
“Especially since we wrote the play, it feels very much like our play,” Niami Jalinous said. “We’re very excited for people to see it.”
“These Shining Lives,” which will be showcased on March 11 and 13, is a contemporary piece of historical fiction depicting four women’s hazardous working conditions during the 1920s. The cast includes seniors Maura Phillips, Laurel Rosenbaum and Sarah Stuetz, and juniors Danny DeBare, Leah Kochendoerfer and Grady Wetherbee.
“It’s quite dramatic, but it’s a pretty piece,” Kochendoerfer said. “It is very heavy and dark so it’s probably PG-13.”
The two plays began rehearsal immediately following “A Servant of Two Masters,” which had its last performance on Nov. 15. Rehearsals have been held both in and outside of class with increasing frequentness as the first performance date nears. Because “The Sound of Music” rehearsals occupied the theater in early February, the casts resorted to practicing in the library.
“It was fine, especially since we were still just roughing out scenes,” Wetherbee said. “We could make do with the tables and chairs in the library.”
During the rehearsal phase, the actors are directed by acting teacher Kim Taylor and student stage managers. For “These Shining Lives,” the stage managers are senior Tyler Ellis and junior Char Nakashima-Conway.
“We’re constantly bouncing ideas off of each other,” Wetherbee said.
“Antigone” and “These Shining Lives” will be the first plays to utilize the recently renovated light and sound systems of the Alan Harvey Theater. This gives the students and director Taylor the opportunity to experiment with more accurate lighting when multiple people are on stage so they can be closer without sharing a spotlight, with different patterns, and with different colors, Wetherbee said.
In addition to stage managers, the production of the two plays is aided by the help of other acting students working on independent projects.
“Half the class is acting and then the other half is doing projects that affect the group, so like costumes, makeup, props and things like that,” Kochendoerfer said. “We need everybody in there together to create the shows that we do.”
