The Middle School Drama Club will perform two one-act plays, “Check Please” and “Check Please Take Two,” by Jonathan Rand, in the Cronin Auditorium Nov. 9 and 10. The two comedies present a series of vignettes in which characters handle blind dates at a Mexican restaurant.
While around 30 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students auditioned Sept. 10 and 11, Martha Brooks, the play’s director, selected a cast of only 19. She said she was looking for students to have loud voices and the ability to lose themselves in a character.
Each cast member will play multiple roles in the production; Brooks assigned parts so that each performer will portray a normal character and then an over-the-top one. This will allow the students to develop their skills as actors by giving them a variety of differing roles to play.
“Being the crazy person is more fun,” said eighth-grade actress Meaghan Katz.
The two-part play seems a good fit for the middle school students. They like the fact that it’s a comedy. Also, the production gives no one a star role, instead making all actors of equal importance.
Seventh-grader Sam Beebe said, “It’s not hard to memorize [the] lines.”
Students seem to have mixed emotions about the performance. Most are excited about it and say they won’t be too nervous until the night of the play.
Katz said, “Once you get on a stage it is scary because all of the lights are on you and you have all of these people looking at you.”
Actors seem to be enjoying play practices as well. “It’s just fun, just hanging out with people that are doing the same thing you are and just being dramatic,” said another eighth-grade actress, Adeline Gall.
The play’s actors have a wide range of experience in theater. For some kids, this will be their first time participating in a play, and for others, the 10th or 11th. Some performers are participating because it is a good way to be more social.
“I’ve always wanted to do drama [and] I haven’t done it before, so [I thought] why not now,” said Gall.
Brooks lends years of helpful directing experience. She has been leading the middle school club for 15 years now and has no plans to stop anytime soon. Brooks is pleased with the way the play is coming along.
“The kids sound older than they are,” she said.
Some of the actors will be eligible to participate in the Middle School Drama Festival in May and perform a condensed version of the play.
The play runs approximately 1½ hours, with an intermission. Tickets sold at the door are priced at $8 for adults and $5 for students, with curtain time at 7 p.m.