Volume CXVI, Issue #3
The student news publication of Walnut Hills High School
Wednesday Nov. 3, 2021
Behind the mask WHHS theatre brings fall play, Rhinosceros, to life with handcrafted headgear
Hajra Munir, ‘23 The WHHS theatre program is taking on Eugene Ionesco’s post-war avant-garde drama, Rhinoceros, while creatively minding the mask mandate. The show is an absurdist piece of commentary on the human condition, which features a town plagued by its citizens transforming into rhinoceroses, but one man is unable to change. “Most high schools wouldn’t tackle this work. It’s an absurdist piece of drama. It’s very weird,” drama, stagecraft, and costuming teacher Helen Raymond-Goers said. With this show, the theatre department is experimenting with a unique theatrical style
COURTESY OF MIKKI SCHAFFNER
in that they will perform the whole production in a black-and-white setting. “We’re also doing it all in grayscale of the Twilight Zone, so it’s going to be a very offputting kind of adventure for our audience simply because it’s not in color; it’s not realistic,” Raymond-Goers said, “but the storytelling is really sort of on point, even for today’s cultural situation.” In order to comply with COVID safety, and maintain the mysterious and thrilling aesthetic of the show, the costume designers have made full face covering caricature masks of the characters. SENIOR Sadie Gray, head mask-maker and costume designer, has been an asset in completing these masks. She pulled inspira-
Making the masks
tion from cartoons that she watched in her childhood, including the French cartoon “Triplets of Belleville” and Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride.” “I think a lot of costuming includes limits on your creative control, because a lot of choices are directorial based choices,” Gray said. “So I think a lot of this, especially when you’re working with masks, takes a lot of the actor’s work away because the expression that they’re usually able to use is taken away. So a lot of responsibility goes on you for making them expressive enough to make up for the lack of expression. So we just went headfirst, right into just going for it and making it our own.” As opening night approaches, the costume
and prop designers are ecstatic to see their work displayed on stage in front of a live audience. “[I’m most excited for] All of the looks coming together. I think right now it’s a slow process of introducing working with the masks for the actors and I feel like opening night is where it all comes together and where it’s put on display for everyone to see,” Gray said. Parents, students, and staff can buy tickets on the theatre department’s website. A limited number of tickets will be sold this year in order to comply with Cincinnati Public Schools district policy. Performances are Nov. 11 and 12 at 7p.m., and Nov. 13 at 2p.m. and 7p.m. in the Rick Steiner Black Box Theatre.
Rhinosceros' costume crew worked for weeks cutting, gluing, sculpting, and painting the character masks to be perfectly ridiculous and show ready.
PHOTOS BY HAJRA MUNIR/CHATTERBOX AND CATHERINE FROST/REMEMBRANCER
COURTESY OF SADIE GRAY