This year’s spring play, “The Foreigner,” will be showcased April 21 and 23 at Butler Lake Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. both nights. The play will not be presented on April 22 because of Passover. Tickets will be $5 and can be purchased online at www.seatyourself.biz/lhs. Student activity passes are also valid.
According to StageAgent.com, “The Foreigner” is a comedy written by American playwright Larry Shue. The story takes place at a lodge in Tilghman County, Georgia. In the beginning of the play, two Englishmen by the names of Charlie and Froggy Lesuer arrive as guests. Charlie only accompanies Froggy to the lodge because his sick wife begged him to, so when he gets to the lodge, he behaves very shyly and often does not reply to people. Froggy compensates for this erratic behavior by making it seem like Charlie is a foreigner who cannot understand the other guests, thus enabling Charlie to discover secrets and scandals among residents of the lodge.
“In the show, I play Betty Meeks who is a little over 70 [years old] and is the owner of the house where the show takes place at,” stated junior Mia Akers. “Although Betty is older, she really has a young soul, and she is always very curious about everything; she’s just full of life and loves to be around people.”
In order to select this production for the spring play, English teacher and director Mr. Christopher Thomas suggested a short list of plays to the Technical Theater Director, Mr. Kevin Holly, who confirmed plays on the list he was especially interested in producing.
“It’s actually a play that I am familiar with because I was in this play when I was in high school,” shared Mr. Thomas. “I love it, it’s a really wonderful comedy, and I wanted to do something that could especially be poignant in our community and in our society as it is today because, even though it’s a comedy, the themes of the show highlight some real issues that are going on in today’s society, as well.”
The play consists of a smaller cast than usual, with only seven students in total (two girls and five boys). These seven students include seniors Jackie Ovassapian, Adam Pozdro, and Joe Sullivan; juniors Akers, John Bleck, and Zach Pearson; and sophomore Jack Miller.
“We really have such a cohesive group to tell this funny, but important story,” shared Pearson, who will be playing the part of Froggy. “I guess that’s what I’m most excited for because it will be amazing on opening night to see seven people turn into this incredible production.”
Rehearsals for the play are every day from 3-5:30 p.m. in the auditorium, and then as the actual days of the play become increasingly closer, the group rehearses later into the night.
A typical rehearsal starts off with a group meeting and warm up. After this meeting, the cast discusses the focus for the day and what the rest of the rehearsal will consist of in terms of scene work and blocking. Blocking is a term used in theater that refers to working on where the actual actors will stand on stage in regards to each other and certain props.
Other activities during rehearsals include character analysis, cast bonding exercises, read-throughs of the script, and then eventually running through the show itself.
As well as the students on the stage, there are also many students who work to put on the production behind the scenes.
The student production team consists of a head stage manager, junior Isabel Ferreira, assistant stage manager, junior Allison Nelson, and props managers, junior Marley Fredricksen and sophomore Michael Campeau.
