Drama department debuts “The Star Spangled Girl”

If Kyle Wood had to offer a short promo for the upcoming play it would be: “I like the way you smell.”

Wood, quoting from this week’s production The Star-Spangled Girl, is one of only three students starring in the Neil Simon comedy.

“Following American Roulette (the last drama production) we wanted to do a comedy,” Wood said.

Juniors Drew Sorrusten, Kyle Wood,  and senior Aly Hutchinson are starring in the play coming out today and runs through May 7. Admission is $6 for students and seniors and $8 for adults.

Wood first got into drama because his sister had been and he had, at that point, not found an extra-curricular activity.

Wood further added that because the play has already been performed across the country, (the previous play American Roulette being written by drama teacher Chris Evans) it was an easy choice to be the next production.

“It’s basically a story about two hippies, they’re brilliant students at Dartmouth who publish a protest magazine. But, to mix things up a beautiful Olympic swimmer who’s sort of the Fox News type, moves in next door to the hippies and peculiarly one of the hippies falls in love with her based on her smell,” Hutchinson said. “There’s another twist, though. The girl likes the hippie who doesn’t like her even though she has an eight-foot boyfriend. It’s basically a love quadrangle,”

The play is certainly a different play from any performed this year.

“This play is unique because it’s so darn funny; it’s not a deep thinking play,” drama teacher Chris Evans said. “Imagine Fox News and MSNBC as boyfriend and girlfriend. The play was written in the 60’s but you can still see some of the political arguments we’re having today.”        

Such a convoluted plot naturally requires a lot of forethought and practice.

Wood said the most difficult part of preparing has been memorizing lines.

“The lines are all pretty dependent on each, and we all rely on each other,” Wood said.

As the last play of the year, “Star-Spangled  Girl” holds special significance for senior Aly Hutchinson.

I had surgery the week before the show, and it’s going to be pretty difficult running around the stage on Thursday,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson added that while “it’s nice that we get class time,” it’s still pretty stressful.

Evans, however, feels that all the work is worth it, “It’s just a funny, funny, play and even though I’ve seen it several times it still makes me laugh.”

“I’ve got three of the hardest workers, it’s very rare to see any of them without books in their hands,” Evans said.

While her time with CMR Drama is nearly at an end Hutchinson, is sad but optimistic.

“I’m excited to go to college, but I’ve been in every mainstage show since I started; and I’m really going to miss the people.”

Drama department produces difficult, right show

Being the paper for such an outstanding school, the Stampede normally has the privilege to report all of the amazing things that members of this student body accomplish.

However, sometimes it is necessary to discuss more difficult topics. Sometimes life has tough stuff, such as school shootings.

Thankfully, the Stampede staff does not shoulder the burden of dealing with these topics alone. Luckily, we have the CMR drama department who March 10-12 produced “American Roulette,” a show directly dealing with a school shooting and its aftermath.

This wasn’t a show that was necessarily fun to watch. But that doesn’t mean that it should not have been watched. School shootings need to be discussed. They aren’t fun, but they need to be discussed.

Pushing the issue away and pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away, nor does it make it less prevalent.

Furthermore, shows such as “American Roulette” don’t make school shootings more likely to happen. They don’t encourage such heinous acts. But they do force us to take a hard look at our own actions and examine what about them could drive anyone to the point where they would take their lives and the lives of those around them.

It is also important to note that during the “talk back” session after the show (a session added specifically due to the content of the play in which audiences could discuss the play with director and writer Chris Evans, as well as with the cast); none of the remaining audience members had anything negative to say about the content. In fact, they praised the cast for tackling such difficult subject matter, and dealing with it in the way that they did.

Furthermore, both before and after the show, Evans stressed the fact that the play was not encouraging or endorsing such violence, instead wanting to bring attention to the issue.

The more the causes of school shootings are discussed, the less likely it will be that one will happen. For that reason alone, any form of media that raises awareness about the issue should be applauded.