Theatre 308 Strives to Ignite Interest
NEIRAD enilno edition
Grueling hours, repetitive lines, dreaded costume fittings and sweltering stage lights -- Theater 308 students puts their heart and soul into every production.
“Stepping onto the stage, and seeing all those silhouettes in the crowd, makes it all worth it,” senior Elizabeth Leimkuhler said.
But some members say lack of district support and always-hovering budget cuts, threatens Theatre 308’s future. Most people assume drama is a department, but that’s not the case. Theatre 308 is a club with one drama elective offered per semester by the English department. English teacher Nancy Herman is the club adviser, director, producer, and drama teacher.
“I believe that the amount of work, dedication, talent, and commitment which working in theater calls for are both under-rated and under-appreciated relative to the way sports are perceived and treated at DHS,” Mrs. Herman said.
Mrs. Herman has been charge since 1980. This past fall she stepped aside as director. “Directing and producing two shows is a huge undertaking which requires enormous investments of time and energy. I’m teaching an additional class this year and felt that I wouldn’t have the time to do a good job on everything. I didn’t want to short change my classes nor the students of 308,” Mrs. Herman said.
The students appreciate Mrs Herman’s challenges. They too are trying to maintain the record of excellence.
“I have been trying to get a lot more people involved. It would be nice to know that when I leave, the theatre is in good hands,” Leimkuhler said. At the moment there are about 100 students in Theatre 308; that’s a little over a twelfth of the student body.
However, not everyone agrees there is a lack of participation. Junior Brooke Davis, a member of the stage crew said, “I cannot speak for the actors, but I do not believe that there has been a lack of participation. The director (Middlesex English teacher) Abby Warren, had to cut many people from the show. As for stage crew, I also believe that there is not a lack of participation. We had more than enough people to complete the set this year.”
The most recent fall production of “Inherit the Wind” had students rehearsing from the moment the final bell rang at 2:17pm to 5:30pm. They kept to this schedule for more than two months. “As we get closer to the performance we add in weekend rehearsals,” senior Alex Rankine said. “We put so much work into it, and it would be nice to get some credit,” Leimkuhler said. “A respectful, but enthusiastic audience makes a great performance,” Davis added.
These students get nothing close to the full house audiences actors dream of obtaining. Approximately 700 tickets were sold for “Inherit the Wind” in the fall; 1,100 tickets for “Fiddler on the Roof” last spring and 900 tickets for “The Curious Savage” in the fall of 2009.
The seating capacity for the auditorium is 1,104, which includes the main floor and balcony. Keep in mind however, that these statistics are for tickets sold over a period of three shows, so in reality, the audience for “Inherit the Wind” was but a smattering of people each night.
Brooke Davis said she expects the spring production of “Beauty and the Beast” to draw higher ticket sales. “First of all, ‘Inherit the Wind’ is a drama and dramas are not nearly as popular as musicals. Compared to other dramas, the attendance at ‘Inherit the Wind’ was slightly smaller possibly because it did not have as broad an appeal. In addition, one of the performance nights was the same night as the football playoffs in Trumbull. We expect ‘Beauty and the Beast’ to draw record numbers.”
The attraction of football and other sports often overshadows Theatre 308. “We are in a very athletic dominant school, but it would be nice to see kids as excited about the play as they are about they are about the Turkey Bowl,” Leimkuhler said.
Those words speak true when the school only requires one credit of any type of art or music, but requires four years of gym to graduate.
“Students only have the opportunity to take two semesters of acting; the majority of their learning about the various skills and aspects of theater has to happen after school hours. I believe that this structure severely limits what students can do and how far they can take their theatre education,” Mrs. Herman said.
It is not surprising after school is where the bulk of learning takes place. During the week before and the week of the play (known as “hell week”) members worked before school and after school until 11pm each night. “Hell week is extremely difficult academically because of long rehearsals and tiredness.” Rankine said. “During hell week, we are just zombies wondering through the halls,” Leimkuhler added.
Questions many Theatre 308 members pose is if students are working all night for the play, why couldn’t they be let out early during “hell week” to jump-start rehearsals? If the members of the play were let out 30 minutes early each school day, beginning three days before opening night, it would be less than the amount of time the girls’ varsity swimming and diving team, both cross country teams, and varsity football team were excused during their season.
In the absence of lesser interest in non-athletic endeavors, Theater 308 tries to promote events. For performances, posters are printed and put around the halls and the town. Ads are also put into the local newspapers. This year, in hopes of spreading the word more, Theater 308 is hoping to perform excerpts of the play at the middle and elementary schools. As well as performances, several weeks before auditions, flyers are put up around the school announcing the time of auditions. In addition, during the week preceding auditions, the information is read over the announcements.
Tickets can be bought online several weeks before the show; a link will be posted on the DHS homepage when tickets are available for purchase. They also can be purchased in front of the library during the week of the show.
If you would like to get involved, meetings are held Tuesday after school in the Little Theatre.
“Theatre 308 is just such a great experience and I think that everybody should give it a chance.” For further information, contact Mrs. Herman or Elizabeth Leimkuhler.
With additional reporting by Annabel Schneider
