Theater holds showcase for states
Before senior Karina Sukhraj got onto the stage to perform her two monologues, she was nervous. She had not performed her piece since districts in November. But after she got onto the stage and got the rhythm going, and she had no trouble.
“I picked pieces that I thought I would be really good at, after a disappointing districts last year. This year, I got to be so powerful in taking my monologues to states,” Sukhraj said. Once I got started, I didn’t have to think about it, it just flowed naturally.”
On Tuesday, Feb. 19, the theater department held a showcase for the thespian troupe in the auditorium to help fundraise for their trip to the Florida State Thespian Festival in March. Thespians showed off the acts that earned superiors, the ones that they will be performing at states, including two student written plays, monologues and musical numbers.
The night started off with a bang, quite literally, with senior Michael McNamara’s play A Place with No Trees. Set in the middle of an empty forest, Professor Setracesed (junior Jake Lippman), fired his pistol at Marvin (junior Adam Johnson), within the first five minutes.
The play was written in order to honor the lost lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last February. Around the stage were four candleholders, in remembrance of those who died.
As the night continued, musical numbers and monologues were performed, and one that really captured the audience’s attention was “Act 3 Scene 4” from King Henry V, performed by juniors Brenna McCafferty and Madison Walker.
The scene was performed in French, accompanied by exaggerated movements to show exactly what they were talking about, for those who do not know any French. The scene got many laughs from the audience, keeping the mood light and fun.
“Working on this scene was a really huge challenge, doing a French Shakespearean scene. I don’t know any French personally, but we had a lot of extra help in order to make sure that we were actually saying the words correctly,” Walker said.
Another play was Puberty Sucks, written by senior Ryan Leon. The storyline follows two gay men, Bill and Tom, played by senior Vangeli Tsompanidis and junior Evan Bogert, who have discovered that their daughter, Chloe, played by junior Emi Oberson, has “become a woman,” and they do not know what to do about it.
“I enjoyed playing Chloe because it’s very unlike any other character I have ever done; I have never been that angsty teen,” Oberson said. “I have always been the ‘mom,’ which was an interesting change because I got to yell on the stage, and I have never done that before..
The thespian troupe will be traveling to the Florida State Thespian Festival in Tampa on Wednesday, March 20.
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