All of the world’s a stage, but at OHS, it’s just a class.
The theater department added a new class this year called The Stage, which allows the students to expand their experience outside of the classroom.
“The goal is that students in that class produce some kind of public performance. They’re involved in all elements of it,” Theater director Isabelle Zurcher said. “We have the Stagecraft II [class] in it doing the technical elements of it. But the end goal is a performance of some sort.”
Though the class is relatively small with just 12 students (both cast and crew), the camaraderie is quite clear.
“Everyone is close, really close,” Jaina Mazdra (10) said. “We are all close, even though we’re split up most of the time. We’re all really good friends.”
This tight-knit group is also getting ready to compete. This will take place on Friday, March 1 with a free preview night at Nottelmann Auditorium on Thursday, Feb. 29.
“I wanted to take a one-act to district competition,” Zurcher said. “When I student taught in Springfield, that was a big thing that most of the high schools there were involved in. And I thought, ‘I mean, competitive theater is hard, very subjective, but I’m getting the opportunity to get feedback and to see other schools work… I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to do that. There are a lot of other schools that do their one-act stuff like during the school day within a class, so I kind of started thinking that was what we were going to work on curriculum-wise for The Stage. That’s what we’ve been doing for this first semester.”
With it being a class-wide effort it may seem as if there is not much room for individual growth, yet it’s the opposite.
“I see myself growing working as an actor more independently because it is very student-led while working with other students,” Macy Judd (12) said. “We’re able to shape the class how we want it to be and I’ve a lot I felt a lot of growth as an actor being able to make my own choices and then working with the director in a more hands-on way with the students.”
Moving forward past the competition, the class offers much more to not only itself but the community. They hope to visit classrooms of local elementary and middle schools.
“…In the event that we don’t go to state we will work on a different one act and hope to take that one, or maybe two to the elementary schools, just like basically after the competition, I want to get us out into the community performing whatever one-act we are working on,” Zurcher said.
Since this class is aimed toward upperclassmen who have been a part of the Theater program at OHS before, it may seem daunting to those wanting to get involved.
“There’s a difference between a kid in theater and a theater kid. If you ever watched any TV, movies, plays, etcetera, those people were the weird kids,” Drew Murphy (12) said. “So it’s not weird if you know what you want to do and you love what you’re doing. So don’t let anybody take that away from you.”
