Pitman High School’s drama department had a fantastic turnout of student productions in the first quarter, with three student-directed plays, and two student-choreographed dances. Having a large group of students working together in unison requires dedication and cooperation by everyone involved, so the participants put forth a tremendous effort to make these productions successful.
The credit for the choreography and performance of both synchronized dances mainly goes to the Drama Club Officers who are also students of the advanced drama classes. These students helped organize the lengthy performance in the first rally, and the “Safety Dance” at the homecoming game. The majority of advanced drama participated in the rally performance, but members of the Drama Club danced during the homecoming halftime show.
Each of the three plays during the first quarter had a completely different subject to work from. Of these, the History Play and Smoke Out Play were perhaps the most poignant, while the Spanish Play was more humorous. The plays occurred during school, in which each class period was a repeated performance. Teachers signed up to attend the plays, but usually those interested in the subject matter received first choice. So, foreign language classes went to see the Spanish play, while history classes went to see the history play.
It goes without saying that all classes received invites to attend the Smoke Out Play. Speaking out against teen drug and alcohol abuse, the Smoke Out Play occurs annually around Halloween.
Spanish Play
The student-directed plays were all quite organized and successful among the audience—yours truly and my fellow Pitman students. Seniors Walter Astorga and Marilyn Diaz directed the Spanish play, entitled “La Piñata es Para Siempre”, or “The Piñata is forever” (emphasis on piñata!). A dramatized spoof of a popular “telenovela”, “La Piñata es Para Siempre” was a hilarious take on the consequences of unrequited love, deception, and revenge—the Spanish equivalent of an American soap opera.
Walter and Marilyn wrote, directed, and even performed (Walter was the lead) the entire production. “We wanted it to be as cheesy as possible. It took seven hours to write!” explains the dynamic duo. The writing consisted of a synthesis of Spanish and English, which contributed heavily to the audience’s understanding of the basic plot. This feature is something I haven’t seen in the past Spanish plays, but as a member of the audience who understands very little about Spanish, the smooth English bits accommodated my lack of knowledge; I probably would not have found the play as amusing without it.
These sorts of productions require a great deal of personal dedication for the cast, crew, and directors involved. “Fifteen days!” of rehearsal (according to the directors) was required. And on top of the grueling rehearsal time, the directors had a great deal of trouble deciding on a lead, until Walter was chosen to play Don Lucas, the suave protagonist.
Still, these stumbling blocks became worth it when the actors witnessed the reactions of the audience. “The shows high points were performing,” commented the directors. “We enjoyed the laughter in the audience’s eyes.” And for this type of production, especially performed in a different language, that’s the best reaction the students could hope for.
History Play
Not only did the drama department focus on comedy in the first quarter; the students also dabbled in what they do best—drama, drama, drama. The performance that followed a week later, dubbed the history play, had its comedic moments, mostly thanks to its three narrators (the Wright brothers and Amelia Earhart), but the overall tone of the play was definitely more solemn. The history play was also written and directed by Sam Cotton and Gabby Cruz.
The development of the play focused first on the more amusing events such as the various accomplishments of men and women, early American conflicts with the Native Americans, and President Nixon’s not-so-convincing pleas of innocence. However, the plot later delved deeper into the more somber moments in history, including the traumatic Flight 93 incident on September 11, 2001, the dramatic Rape of Nanking, the aftermath of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, and the victims of the holocaust.
Told through several monologues, duets, and occasionally song, the history play had nearly every member of the audience in tears—especially towards the finale, as the Flight 93 victims called their families for a final farewell, before plummeting to the earth one last time. And for the grand finale, sophomore (and former Roaring Times staff writer) Sarah Snyder sang the national anthem, while the audience members faced the flag.
Smoke Out Play
The most recent performance, the Smoke Out play, occurred very shortly before Halloween. A time-honored tradition here at Pitman, the play took a more dramatic and serious turn than it has in previous years. The directors wanted students to realize that the tone of the play was serious because the subject matter was serious. Directed by juniors Patrick Norris and Samantha Cotton, the Smoke Out play allowed anyone from Drama Club, Beginning Drama, and Advanced Drama to audition, provided they prepared a short dramatic monologue.
The lighting and sound effects of this particular play contributed greatly to the overall effect on the audience. Soft music punctuated a somber scene of recovering teens in a counseling session, while sirens and a crash alerted the audience to the consequences of underage drinking and driving. As an added surprise, actors dressed in their gory best snuck into the audience to start off a brief section about the aftermath of an alcohol-related car accident.
On the subject of statistics, each segment of the play was ushered in by presented statistical information related to teen alcohol and drug abuse. Preceding the short vignettes and segments of the play, the statistics acted as a shock factor, such as the fact, “All the alcohol that is purchased in a year for underage drinking totals up to 58 billion dollars. That is enough to buy every student in the world a new computer”, and “Alcohol kills 6 ½ times more teenagers than all other illicit drugs combined.”
The final section of the play followed the stages of drunkenness as told by an omnipresent narrator, played by senior Annie Fei. The narrator was supposedly present at the party, yet describes each consequence of teen underage drinking as it is happening. The final results were two fatal car crashes and the ultimate plot twist punctuated by an immediate blackout of the theater—the narrator was the drunk driver responsible for the tragedies.
What’s Next?
Over the whole month of November and most of December, advanced drama will prepare its own rendition of Charles Dickens’ classic play, A Christmas Carol. Directed by the drama department teachers, the show opens on Thursday and Friday, December 9-10.
