Once upon a ‘Twelfth Night’
Theater prepares for 3 days of Shakespeare.
Ellie Seamster, Aidenne Despres, Virginia Price, Aubree Reynaud and Julie Lewis perform a scene from “Twelfth Night”, during one of their last dress rehersals before their performance this week. Theater rehearses everyday after school until 5:30 and on Saturdays.
November 8, 2021
Production theater brings Shakespeare to the stage for its first show of the year Thursday through Saturday.
The shows start at 7 p.m., and Saturday afternoon includes a matinee performance at 2:30 for early birds.
Not only will the high school thespians perform, students from Spring Branch Middle School will perform “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Smithson Valley Middle School will perform “Romeo and Juliet”.
“We haven’t done something like this before,” high school director Casey O’Bryant said. “It’s a great way to get them involved, get them excited about theater at the high school level because it would get them on the big stage.”
Tickets cost $10 at the door.
“With publicity around campus, we have announcements going on, we’ve got the posters up on the TV, we have kids taking posters to businesses, middle school parents coming,” O’Bryant said.
Lead Aidenne Despres plays the role of Violas/Cesario.
“I am so excited for the show because it’s really funny and fun to do” she said.
This is the first fall performance since this past year’s COVID regulations, and now the troupe will have multiple people on stage, unlike 2020 when only one person was allowed on stage at a time.
“You know last year our main stage show was a monologue play, one kid on stage at a time, and so that was so weird, the energy was strange,” O’Bryant said. “It wasn’t bad; it was just different.”
Sophomore Rowen Hamilton portrays Sir Toby Belch.
“I am so excited to be able to perform like normal again and not have to social distance backstage anymore” he said.
The cast and crew began in the summer to prepare show and make sure everything flows smoothly. Technical theater director James Black and his students work during their class periods to perfect the set.
“I think they’re ready,” O’Bryant said. “We’ve been working on this for a long time, since the summer basically. I think at this point they’re ready for an audience, they need an audience, that energy, because right now it’s just all been rehearsal. There are still some things we need to fix, but we’ve got time.”