Student actors detail their roles and other elements of two “Fall One-Acts” next month
by Dan McClelland
Some of the main players in Red and Black Players’ Fall One-Acts previewed their performance for the benefit of the Tupper Lake Board of Education at the October meeting last Monday. Standing in a line in the board room the players took turns describing their roles and details of the abridged play.
Haylee Callaghan: “I’m Haylee and I’m a senior and president of the Music Department. The Red & Black Players have been working on the Fall One-Acts for about a week now. The High School group will be performing an abridged, or shortened, version of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” in the original language.”
John Fallon: “Hi, my name’s John and I’m a junior and the vice president of the Red & Black Players. The Shakespearean language in this play is challenging to pronounce and understand, but it’s rewarding to learn the meanings of the dialog and say the text in a way that it makes sense to the audience. We have 14 members in the cast, and many of us are playing multiple roles, including the Greek chorus, which helps emphasize the action taking place in the scenes.”
Haylee Callaghan: “I am cast as Anthony in the play, and my character is a solider and friend of Caesar. Mr. Cordes is our director, and we rehearse three nights a week in two-hour blocks, working around sports conflicts the best we can.”
John Fallon: “I am playing the role of Brutus. My character is also a friend of Caesar, but one of the group who conspire against him. It’s important to mention that we have a great group of parent volunteers who feed us dinner before the dress rehearsals and performances. We’re really lucky to have their support and appreciate not having to run to Stewarts or McDonalds every day!”
Lance Schaffer: “Hi! My name is Lance and I’m in the 8th grade. The middle school Red & Black Players are presenting Shrek the Musical KIDS this fall. Based on the very popular 2001 movie, the broadway musical opened in 2008.
Cash Hollingsworth: “Hi! I’m Cash and I’m in 7th grade. Our show takes the very best from the Broadway show and condenses it into a 30 minute production with acting, singing and dancing.”
Amelia Shaheen: “Hi! I’m Amelia and I’m in the 7th grade. There are 18 people in our cast who are covering 31 roles, so many of us have more than one part. There is also a lot of music to learn, along with choreography and spoken lines. This also means there will be a lot of costume changes during the show!”
Mallory Snyder: “Hi! I’m Mallory and I’m in 7th grade. It’s challenging to play the characters in this show because you have to act very differently than a real person, sometimes changing your voice to sound like Pinocchio or the Wicked Witch or acting like a grumpy ogre or goofy donkey. It’s getting easier the more we do it, though.”
Lance Schaffer: “I am playing the grumpy ogre, Shrek. We have 6 crew members and all of them will be helping to paint the set and build props. Three are designing and building a dragon, and one will be running the performance tracks for the show.”
Cash Hollingworth: “I am playing Donkey, Shrek’s side-kick. We rehearse three days a week in two-hour blocks. Because we’re amazing, we learned all of our music for the show in three days! The music is fun to sing, so that makes it easier to learn and remember.
Amelia Shaheen: “I’ll be playing Fiona and very briefly the Fairy Godmother. This week, we will start to work on the staging and the choreography. We are very excited to start dancing! Our director and assistant director are Mrs. Cordes and Mrs. Gillette and our choreographer is Miss Davidson.”
Mallory Snyder: “I’m playing Mama Ogre and the Wicked Witch. There will be two performances of each play, the opening is on Saturday, November 8 at 7p.m. and the closing matinee is Sunday, November 9 at 2p.m. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens. We hope you’ll come see our show!”