Dramatiques Recap 2024-25

This school year was certainly an eventful one for Parker School Dramatiques. We put on 2 shows, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare in the fall and Into the Woods Jr., composed by Stephen Sondheim, in the spring. This year was marked by wonderful ups and tragic downs, but one thing became incredibly clear to me throughout all of it: our theatre is a home. It’s one of those spaces where no matter what you have going on outside, the moment you step through those doors, you are part of a family. I wouldn’t say we leave our problems outside (theatre kids are notoriously bad at not being dramatic), but we approach everyone and everything with kindness first. We have a sort of motto that we say before every show, called our “cheesy mantra,” and while it is quite cheesy, I think it sums things up perfectly. “Love first, and everything else second.” It is incredibly difficult not to feel loved within our theatre, and I have never realized this the way I did this year.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This fall’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was unlike any our school has ever experienced. Just over a month before opening night, our theatre was shaken by the tragic loss of Jessica Sprinkle, a cherished cast member and friend to all, and the serious injuries of three other leads. Jessica’s passing left a space on stage and in our hearts that can never be filled. But in the face of unimaginable grief, the cast showed remarkable strength, unity, and love, continuing not just for the show, but for Jessica. Ms. Duggan, Ms. Lilley, and every single one of the forty people involved in the production came together to figure out how to proceed. There were talks of cancelling the show, but that option was unanimously voted against. I’d say that the most important thing that I got out of this show was the realization of just how much we love the theatre. It was our safe space, and while one may have expected rehearsals to be somber and uncomfortable, we united with nothing but care and compassion for each other. 

Parker’s theatre program is different from most in that the students have a strong voice in our decisions. This became evident during discussions regarding sensitive issues such as how we should go about making space for Jessica. It didn’t feel right to recast the role, so as a team we decided that her character’s lines would be redistributed amongst the cast, and her name as well as those of the three girls injured in the accident were left in the playbill. Every night during bows, it was my job to ensure that space was left for Jess. We would have done our bows together as a duo, so I felt incredibly strongly about making sure that space onstage was left for her memory to fill.

If you came to see Midsummer, I’m sure you remember the stage. It was set in a fairy forest, covered with greenery and twinkling lights, and flowers. The dancers got to dress up like fairies in some of the most beautiful dresses I have ever seen, and each character’s costume was made with incredible diligence and attention to detail. Uncle Lee, our costume designer, makes the decision to work with the actors regarding our costumes. We have a say in the accessories we’d like to have based on the backstories we give ourselves. Shakespeare leaves much up to interpretation, so our costumes all felt very personal. Uncle Lee has been such a joy to have in our program, and ever since he joined Dramatiques for Beauty and the Beast last spring, our stages have felt a magic that none of us knew we needed. I cannot express enough how grateful we all are for his creativity and versatility as a part of our team.

Into the Woods Jr.

Into the Woods Jr. was a very difficult show to pull off. As Ms. Duggan said every night in her pre-show announcements, Stephen Sondheim likes to make his music extremely hard to sing. He writes beautiful songs, but they jump around so much that it is a challenge even for Broadway performers. However, our cast did it perfectly. This show might hold the record for the least amount of mistakes throughout the entire run, at least within recent years. One thing we took away from Midsummer was that in case of emergencies, it is always better to be more prepared than not. The result of this was that we were fully blocked and memorized an entire month before opening night, meaning we could dedicate much more time to perfecting the small details that made our production come to life. We found places to add comedic moments and work on the caliber of our acting, which hasn’t always been possible in years past.

One of the best parts about doing a show adapted from Broadway is that it was made for a very technical stage. A key example of this is the witch’s transformation at the end, which took a light show, fake smoke, and tearaway clothing to make it come to life. I remember every night, most of the cast would gather in the wings to try to watch that moment again. It’s the kind of thing that you can never see enough times, it’s so perfect. It was obvious how much fun Ms. Lilley had being the tech director on this show, being able to bring herself and her penchant for silly moments into a performance while still maintaining its professional nature. My personal favorite part of the show was the Stewardess clacking coconut shells together to mimic the Prince’s horse, a la Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s the kind of thing that only Ms. Lilley would come up with and make it happen, and it turned out so funny but also actually fit the scene really well.

However, Into the Woods was not without its issues. As tends to happen with large groups working together to put on a production, there were plenty of disagreements and lots of tension. This is no unfamiliar situation when it comes to the dramatic arts, but the remarkable part was how we were able to keep it out of the theatre. Everybody was incredibly professional and kind, putting their problems and opinions aside. It was impressive to me to see a cast made up of middle and high schoolers manage their drama so effectively, and it just reinforced the overall theme of this year’s Dramatiques runs. The love that I and many others feel inside our space is something that I have never felt anywhere else, and I will always insist that everybody should experience theatre. Whether you’re part of the tech crew, in the ensemble, or a lead, the love you receive is unmatched. We are all there for each other, and this year taught us that especially well. I’d like to subtly urge all of you to consider auditioning or helping out in next year’s shows (which are still being decided on but will be announced after summer!), or at the very least to come see all of the hard work we all put in.