A Final Theater Performance in the Blackbox

On Tuesday, May 7, the high school performance theater class had an after-school performance in the Blackbox Theatre. In around 45 minutes, the group performed two student-written plays: Objection of Love (written by Robert Y.) and Family is Stressful (written by Isadora B.).

The high school theater class is taken as an elective by students from 9th to 12th grade. The group currently has 10 members. This performance is the product of their script-writing unit: as theatre teacher Mr. Sinclair explained, “There’s no point in writing a play unless you’re going to produce it and perform it.” Instead of performing in the theater, the group chose to perform in the Black Box so that they wouldn’t need to spend a lot of time “making it perfect.”

Promotion for the performance began only a few days before the performance. However, the elegant posters were eye-catching, providing an aesthetic addition to the walls near the stairs:

I really enjoyed the short performances and found both of them light-hearted and humorous. For me, it was interesting to watch the wide range of characters and personalities that the performers brought onstage: Bonnie S. was an intimidating mother in Objection of Love, and Robert Y. thoroughly replaced his identity of a teenage theater student with that of a frustrated middle-aged man in Family is Stressful. However, another audience member, freshman Thomas X., was not as satisfied with the performance. Thomas thinks that although the storylines of the plays were interesting and “wholesome,” there were awkward transitions, slow dialogue, and poor tension-building.

Although I appreciate Thomas’ precise criticism, I think the performers deserve more credit. It should be taken into account that this group only met for a few hours every week, as performance theater is taken as a class. Performer Jenny L. has similar thoughts; although she agrees that the show wasn’t perfect and the group “was a little disorganized,” they did their best and had already put in a lot of effort to improve the performance. The performers explained after the performance that they couldn’t find a few important props right before the start of the show, but I didn’t even notice it during their performance.

According to another performer, Priena P., they spent the last few weeks of lessons constantly revising and polishing the plays. However, she doesn’t seem to think that the work was “work,” because the process was enjoyable with a fun group of people: “we have some crazy people here, so we would always have something to laugh about or to discuss.” Overall, Mr. Sinclair thought that the performance and its preparation process was a successful active class activity. He also confirmed that although he provided some feedback and help with role-assignment, it was mainly student-run.

Objection of Love was performed by Isadora B., Nick G., Isco K., Priena P., and Bonnie S. Family is Stressful was performed by Vicky K., Jenny L., Robert Y., Joey Z. For both performances, new student Aimee H. managed the lights and sound stand. Good job, everyone!

I was surprised by the small audience, but I really liked the comfortable mood in the Black Box that afternoon: the performers, the characters and the setting all fit together well. This was also one of the last performances in the Black Box Theater before its demolition, so I’m glad I had the chance to watch it.