Doomed from the start

Fall play: A satirical take on producing theatre

By Efrata Solomon

HAWKEYE STAFF

Clear your calendars and cancel all your plans! Despite being barely two months into the school year, the MTHS drama department has already been hard at work for the first production of the 2022-2023 school year, and the showtimes for the play are just around the corner.

This year, the fall production, called “The One Act Play That Goes Wrong,” is a selfaware comedy about the production of a play itself, premiering on Thursday, Nov. 17 through Saturday, Nov. 19. The initial performance originally ran in London at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2012, written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sawyer and Henry Shields of Mischief Theatre Company.

“It’s a play about a play, which is a murder mystery about who murdered a wealthy socialite in the middle of the night,” senior Jack Williams said, who plays the director Chris. Chris also plays the esteemed local inspector in the murder mystery.

At first, the play sounds pretty standard. However, the production is about to run anything but smoothly, as implied by the title. Senior Maryana Ward, who plays the company’s stage manager Annie, illustrates some of the chaos that ensues during this production.

Ward describes a scene in the play where the lead actress in the murder mystery, played by sophomore Seble Daniel, gets knocked unconscious. Annie is forced to replace her and actually warms up to her new role in the play, until she gets knocked out as well and has to be lifted through a window to be removed from the stage. Both the lead actress and Annie eventually regain consciousness, and Annie’s newfound passion for acting leads to a fight between the two on stage.

“My favorite scene has to be when [Annie and Sandra] get into a catfight on stage,” sophomore and stage technician Amitha Thomas said. With these glowing descriptions, how could this play not pique your interest?

As of writing this article, the play is almost done and ready to premiere.

“We’re making really good progress and it’s a really good play. We’ve already blocked (choreographed) everything,” Thomas said.

“We’re on the verge of doing costumes, and we’re just a few days away from tech work,” Williams said. “I was worried earlier about the play’s progress, but I feel better now.”

Ward has made a lot of personal progress as an actress throughout this play.

“In the show, I have to be very dramatic and over the top, and it’s really brought me out of my comfort zone. It taught me not to care what other people think,” Ward said.

Williams, Ward and Thomas all drew different interpretations of the show’s main theme, something hard to pinpoint due to the play being a satire.

“There aren’t really any grand moral themes,” Williams said. “we’re mainly there to make people laugh.”

“Don’t be hard on yourself when you make mistakes, laugh at them, and work with what you have,” Ward said.

“Even if you mess up, there’s always a bright side,” Thomas said.

Drama teacher Jeannie Brzovic just wants to entertain the audience and hopes they have a few good laughs. She also encourages anyone interested in future theater projects to audition for the winter play.

“Auditions for our second winter play will open soon [after the performance of this play]. It’s another comedy called ‘Rumors.’ Anyone can and should audition for it,” Brzovic said. “Rumors” is a play by Neil Simon that premiered in 1988, focusing on contrived and ridiculous situations about a chaotic dinner party.

For any students who want to watch the fall play, all tickets are sold at the door. Brzovic recommends arriving 20-30 minutes before the production starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $8 for general admission and $6 for children 13 or under, senior citizens, or those with ASB cards.

“We’ve had a lot of fun doing the play because it’s such an unusual comedy,” Brzovic said.

“I think it’s gonna be a good show. I hope for a good crowd and that it goes well,” Williams said.

Will someone actually break a leg in this disastrous play? You’ll never know unless you decide to see the play on Nov. 17, 18 or 19, so make sure you buy a ticket to watch it! H

CLUB FEATURES

Stories by Kaylee Miyamoto Graphics by Rodney Budden

The Technology Student Association is a variety STEM club. From state to national level competition, students can perform in many different projects from fashion design to speech to dragsters. Anyone of any grade or experience can join as long as they are a STEM CTE student. Meetings are weekly in room 128 on Thursdays from 2:003:00 p.m. H

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international robotics competition where high schools have 6 weeks to build a robot. MTHS FRC teaches students how to come together as a team, compete and build a robot with STEM skills. Team 1778 is open to everyone and no experience is necessary. The club meets Tuesdays and Thursdays in the MTHS workshop and room 131 6:00 - 7:30 pm. H

FRC WANTS YOU!

By FRC Representatives

Are you looking for something to do as we are out of quarantine? Well, FIRST Robotics Competition is looking for new members.

FIRST Robotics Competition, I’m sure that immediately makes you think of building robots and coding, and you would be right. You learn how to get shop certified so you can use chop saws and drill screws, you learn computer-aided design, how to code and program, and you can learn to weld.

But there is so much more to FRC than just building robots. As fun as robotics can be, it might not be your strong suit, but don’t worry, FRC requires fundraisers and sponsoring to be successful, which can’t be done without people working to make it happen. You can do publications, marketing, treasury, website building or graphic design—whatever interests you.

Something that is so great about FRC is that whether you do the actual building of the robot or work on business, you can learn skills that will help you in the future. Between building robots and the various competitions, you learn crucial life skills like how to work well with a team, how to use effective means of communications, how to be professional and how to manage your time.

Chill Out 1778 won the Rookie of the Year Award 2006 when we first started, and that was just the start. We have been regional finalists five times, won safety awards six times, we even went to worlds in both 2017 and 2018. This may not seem that impressive, but there are about 3,800 FRC teams worldwide and only 450 teams total make it to worlds. That’s 11%. Pretty impressive, right?

FRC isn’t for everyone and that’s okay, but if you are interested, come check it out. We would love to have you. H