The Wahawk Speech and Theater department has been preparing their show, “The Bugs” a Greek comedy written by Don Zolidis and directed by William Dawson and Benjamin Hirdler. A cast of originally 28 students has dwindled down to 21 members. As the cast and crew approach their first bow, they have started to get increasingly worried about how their show will turn out.
As a school of roughly 1800 students, one would assume that a cast of 30 students would not be a hard requirement to fill, but finding 30 hard-working and committed students is much harder than it might seem. And as the stakes get higher and the performance dates draw near, the patience within the cast, crew and directors gets shorter and shorter.
The theater department has been rehearsing every day after school for the last six and a half weeks preparing their show. Cast members have shared that not only was the schedule demanding, but it was uneven on the work-to-no-work ratio, due to scheduling conflicts within the cast. As the cast enters tech week, a week full of rehearsals from right after school until 9:00, there has been a lot of talk about students having work conflicts, and issues with family members not being able to come to performances due to last-minute date changes.
Changing the dates last minute has made the cast worried that their efforts of advertising their show now lack consistency and credibility. The cast worked to create invites and publication posts for social media to then take them down, edit and repost them makes it seem like the play is unreliable. This gives the audience planning on attending the production a misunderstanding that the cast and crew aren’t ready to perform, which in turn makes then feel like their hard work isn’t paying off.
Cosmo Lemmons, a junior cast member shares that the scheduling could have been improved, but the cast is taking change fairly well. “While this isn’t the first time a West High play has had the dates changed, it never fails to make the cast and crew feel almost defeated because it shows that our efforts weren’t enough for the deadline, and while, yes, that is usually the fault of people in the crew and cast, it still hurts nonetheless.” they said. They also shared that having to constantly recast the production has made it difficult to get everyone memorized in time for the opening performance.
Millie Gracia, a third-year theater student, shares that she thinks the play has been a struggle to put together due to a lack of commitment from the cast. Gracia states, “We only have a few days until performance and we still do not have 3 characters. The directors, cast, and crew are all stressed out and overworking themselves trying to throw this all together last minute,” Gracia shares.
When thinking on the changed show dates, she shares that even though she is not affected by them, she knows and sympathizes with her cast mates that did have plans for the adjusted day. Gracia explains how the quick date changes and casting issues has effected morale, specifically for the group of students that put in extra time and effort for the production. She shares that a group of six to seven cast members show up early and stay late at each rehearsal to ensure that they produce the show to the best of their abilities. “I, as well as many of my peers, are extremely frustrated with this process, but rather than dropping the play out of anger, we work harder than everyone else around us to try our hardest to put this all together.”
Since the cast has lost eight cast members and had to fill seven roles by doubling characters and cutting scenes out, they are feeling very discouraged and worried about their turnout for their opening night. Max Kane, a junior, shares that “With the number of students that have dropped the play last minute, we’ve really struggled to fill parts and make sure that everyone is blocked and memorized. The play would have been less stressful if cast members didn’t drop like flies.”
The cast and crew have been working hard to bring this show to the stage, despite the scheduling and casting conflict. The Theater department would appreciate all your support in their performance of “The Bugs.” You can purchase tickets by calling West High’s Business office or at the doors. The show will be hosted in West High’s Little Theater on Friday, November 3 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, November 4 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
