Over the past two weeks, students and faculty alike have wandered the hallways throughout campus, gazed at the larger-than-life posters, and read excruciating amounts of journalistic claptrap regarding the West Chester Drama Department’s production of “Trojan Women.” Though WCDD will still be performing various other events throughout the next few weeks, this play marked the last major production of the spring semester.
The Drama Department now turns its focus to next semester, and the major plays they will be pursuing in the new school year: “Wall*E,” “High School Musical,” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel.”
Chosen through the method of “names in a hat,” these productions represent the careful and thought-out approach the Drama Department has taken in order to provide its audience with a wide range of theatrical content.
Recommended by Film Reception Critic Jenn Rothstein, the first major production of the 2009-2010 school year will be a staged representation of the Disney/Pixar film, “Wall*E.” This is predicted to be the first adaptation of the film from screen to stage, a circumstance which allows the department to fully explore all possible paths of original interpretation.
Interestingly enough, the set for “WALL*E” will be “recycled” through the set of “Trojan Women.” The run-down, drab buildings will receive a slight bit more battering on their “front” sides to depict the world of “WALL*E,” and the opposite walls will be redone in the fashion of the “Buy-n-Large” spaceship.
Though the convenience of a nearly already completed set certainly eases the development of the production, there are many other factors of this film adaptation challenging the cast and crew.
“I think the most difficult thing I’ll need to overcome will be memorizing all of the lines,” said Pat Collia, in the role of Wall*E. “I mean, no one has ever had to try learning fluent Earth-Class robot before!”
The second production WCDD is preparing to reveal is Disney’s “High School Musical,” which is tentatively set to open on Nov. 12. Due to boost in the economy, the set will consist of an actual high school, to be built and completed throughout the summer and school months prior to the show.
“We want to give the audience as real of an experience as possible,” said Francis Sherlow, “They should feel like they’re back in high school: passing notes, getting swirlies, and occasionally breaking out into song. You know, those things every kid who went through the school system experienced.”
Audience members will be given a backpack with their program upon entering the gigantic set, complete with books, a water bottle, and a quiz due by the intermission. Also included in the backpack is a clipboard to ease the note-taking process, since the audience is required to stand and follow the actors around the set to achieve the ultimate sense of participation in the production.
The last major production intended for next school year is “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” Though the casting has not yet begun for the production, the show is set to open the first Sunday of the spring semester. The play will then be performed promptly at 2 p.m. every Sunday for the entire semester, with occasional show times on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m.
The motivation behind taking on such a highly esteemed show was to pay homage to a WCDD senior graduating this spring, Andy Lory.
“We figured the best way to honor Lory would be to constantly remind the campus of his unrelenting influence among our college theatre,” said Trap Mullivan.
“All we can hope is that we manage to produce one-tenth of the theatrical success in our productions as Lory was able to do in his final year here, and this show seems like the best way to do it.”
Possible audience members of any WCDD event should realize that the production choices, developments, and castings relayed above are entirely false. April Fools!
Tara Tanzos can no longer be reached through e-mail. She has cut all technological ties with the real world, but instead can be reached via telepathy.
* April Fools!