This past weekend, the cast and crew of Antigone put their production in front of an audience. Antigone is a Greek tragedy about a brave young woman who disobeys the king to bury her brother, believing it’s the right thing to do. Her choice leads to tragedy and reveals the conflict between personal beliefs and the law. 35 of our high school students contributed to this play by either acting, set building, working as crew members or designing costumes. Some featured students in this production include senior Kensie Waller playing Antigone, junior Cooper Laliberte playing Creon, and senior Temira Bolds playing Ismene.
“I was King Creon, the tyrant. It’s one of the main characters. I wasn’t too nervous because I’ve done productions like this before. It was just a great feeling to have everybody there to support live theater,” said junior Cooper Laliberte.
The cast and crew, for around nine weeks, worked together to accomplish several different parts of putting the show together, such as the audition process, learning lines, blocking and finally the production itself. Many faculty, students, and parents came to support the cast and crew, which led to three sold-out shows. Senior Megan Pinkley shares her thoughts on the night before their first show.
“It makes me a little nervous, but at the same time, we are very prepared for this show. We’ve ran through the show a bunch of times and so I think everybody’s pretty prepared and ready to show what we’ve done,” Pinkley said.
While the actors may be the ones in front of the audience, there are many people backstage who play crucial roles in the production as well.
“I’m the stage manager, and then I am also doing costume designs,” senior Sarah Kathryn McQueen said. “We help keep actors in check, and we help Ms. Daniel [Shelly Daniel, faculty show director]. We’re in charge of the crew, and then my specific role with costuming is that I’ve done a lot of sewing. I help people get their costumes ready and help prepare and makeup.”
During the process of creating the show, actors and crew members learned several different skills. These include learning how to sow, building set designs, and getting in touch with their emotional side.
“We’ve definitely learned a lot of set stuff on this production since we’re not having a totally overdone set. It’s kind of like bare bones, so we’ve learned how to make paint look like stone and how to properly make things look as if we’re in old Greek times.” said Pinkley.
While many actors learned new skills regarding acting and the show business, some outside of the stage skills were also accomplished. Laliberte shares his personal skills that he achieved throughout the production process.
“I’ve learned how to work better with a team and what it’s like to be in power,” Laliberte said.
All of the work and effort that was put into this production eventually came to an end last weekend. For some students, specifically seniors, this was their final play for high school.
“I’m kind of sad. It’s my last play that I’m doing in high school. I’ve been doing this for four years, so it’s kind of the end of an era. I’m sad it’s ending, but I’m also relieved, because it’s a lot of work,” McQueen said.
While this production is over, the cast and crew are not finished just yet. They must go through ‘strike’, which is when they take down the set and sort props and costumes back to their original places. For others, the next step is preparing auditions for the upcoming winter musical, Hadestown.
“Come support live theater on February 20th through the 23rd at the winter musical!” Laliberte said.