The theatre department is starting production for the fall play, Twelfth Night. Almost completely student run, multiple branches of theatre have been putting in work to make sets, props, costumes, and the story itself. Students are acting, building, sowing, and sawing. All taking place in the Performing Arts Center, the play will be fully fleshed out and available to see starting November 18th.
The cast of this play are very invested in this story too. The actors do their own research on their characters and the time period, and new ideas, to make for the best result possible. Being a Shakespearean play, there are a lot of things that may be difficult for some audiences to understand, but the director voted to ease up on some areas for the sake of the viewers, and also for the crew.
“We’re putting our production in the 1920s… Just to help make like the different servant and master type of things from Shakespeare’s Day more relevant and understandable for the audience,” said Bill Garrett, CHS theater teacher and director.
While there are upgrades to the new time period for this piece, all the same vocabulary will be used. The audience will be able to understand what’s going on through the clever dialogue the cast implements.
The cast and crew also work especially hard in rehearsal for the play. The entire department meets after school in the Performing Arts Center, essentially making for an eighth period class. But even though the hours are long and tiring, the students still love it.
“I think the jokes are really funny and the audience is gonna understand it. I think it’s just a really funny play to watch,” said senior Sean Taylor, who plays Olivia.
Alongside the cast, there are so many parts that make a production work. One of the departments that really immerse the audience into the world of the play is the set department. The set crew are the ones responsible for crafting up all the pieces seen on stage.
As the story goes, it is set in a 1920s Mediterranean Village. Set Staff Assistant, Chris Boucarut claims the set is expected to be vast.
“[There’s] a 16 foot structure that they’re working on… We got eight builds, so I think we have like seven more to build for now,” said Boucarut.
CHS Junior, Andrew Duncan is one of the many people that operates the set. He works in carpentry until the show starts, but when they get further in production, he will be managing pulley systems slightly off stage, so this show will have specialized effects.
The costume subdivision manually makes and sews costumes for the cast. Whether the costume students are new to clothing design, or have already had experience with it, the end products are always usable for the play. As Twelfth Night Is a Shakespearean product, the clothing items are complex and difficult, but the costume department always makes it work. Freshman costume designer Ivy Baer has stated that they have to design the vibe for each character and use themes and ideas not seen before. She says that there is a creative aspect of costume and it isn’t just replicating the same costumes from previous adaptations of the same play.
“We have to design the sort of vibe that we’re going for and find costumes that fit certain characters,” said Baer.
With a little over a month left until opening night, the theater department is still in the beginning stages of the production, but everyone is working hard to put on a show.
