On Oct. 16, the annual fall play premiered at OH. This year, the play is titled “You Can’t Take It with You,” inspired by a similar college play. Katherine Conant, the OH Lead Director, has tasked the cast and crew with planning by working with actors, makeup, lighting, props, and dance choreography.
“So rehearsals are done because we have to plan out the schedule so we know what we’re working on each day, and before the play starts, I do all the blocking,” said Conant.
Blocking means organizing different scenes of the play into which parts they will fall into and in what order they will be done.
Within the scenes, an actor has already been pre-selected for their role. Usually, they are very confident in their abilities. They also have to work well in the genre that the teacher has picked, as mentioned below.
“People think they should get a different role but it is my job to pick the right people for the right part and to help them through that process,” said Conant.
They have to work well with the other actors, cooperate with the makeup, and coordinate with the props manager and costume designer. Then the dance choreographer and lighting team take it to a whole other level.
“Sometimes it’s people who have a big role and never had a big role and get stressed out and have trouble with memorizing everything and memorizing their blocking and the props they have to have and their costumes and all that stuff,” said Conant.
There is also the construction of the set, which takes up the majority of the building process in the play.
“I’m part of the construction team,” said OH senior student Ben Simmons. “I took a few 2-by-4s, cut them as the frame of the walls, then did the trimming and crown molding.”
Once the construction is done, it’s up to the lighting and set design crew to make the sets feel real and authentic.
“Each crew has a crew head… in charge of that crew. So we have props, makeup care set, and construction, lights, sound, and publicity, and then we have [the] production team, which is stage manager, assistant stage manager, and student tech director,” said Conant.
Even the props team took the time to make the set feel real. In production, they added a mirror near the supposed “door” which was behind the set. If you were an actor on the front of the stage facing the audience while parallel to the mirror, the audience could see your reflection in the mirror. This is a clever way of giving authenticity to the set.
“I chose the genres based on the students I currently have, like I have to know if I have somebody who [can] take each of the roles,” said Conant.
Based on what a casual attendee would see, the play is set in the 1920s based on what a regular American family would be going through in everyday life. The storyline can be humorous as well as impactful, with notes of an underlying message in the play. The students pour out their hearts and souls into the characters they’re playing. In the second act, one student was so committed to being a humble and passive character that he ensured that the microphone on him would catch the sound of him falling on his face.
“A majority of the time a person I thought [it] would be perfect for ends up being perfect for a different part, and someone I didn’t even know ends up being for the original part,” said Conant.
This play is another example of how far the fall play team has come and how much effort and care they put into their work at Oswego High. It also shows the experience and professionalism of Conant, who has managed to work with the team to provide a quality experience and show the talents of the students involved.
My name is Terrence K. Acosta and I am a Senior in Oswego High School.This is my first year in digital journalism, throughout my final school year i have ventured into many endeavors and school interests to see if one of them captivated me. However I've had no luck anywhere, so I have given journalism a try. I am hoping to enjoy this role in the school a little even if I still have to keeping looking for what captivates me in school.
