As the curtain closed on the first play of the school year, the actors of The Man Who Came To Dinner reflected on the success of their opening show. This comedic play challenged the actors’ communication skills with its extensive and quick dialogue.

Junior Allie Sharpe described her feelings of enthusiasm on opening night. 

“Lots of jitters and excitement,” Sharpe said. “It’s a family effort. As long as you pull your weight, it will go well.”

The Man Who Came To Dinner is a comedy that debuted in 1939. Unlike previous shows our school has done, this play lacked any sort of modernism, and therefore was not something our school’s actors were familiar with. 

“It’s definitely very different, at least from the ones I’ve done,” sophomore Elijah Goodwin said. “A lot of the other ones I’ve done are more modern day things, and this takes place in the late 1930s, so it’s definitely a different mindset to get into and that challenge.”

Although this was a challenge, some students appreciated the change of the setting. 

“It’s set in like 1930s or 40s, so the talking, dialect and everything is completely different from how we do now,” York said. “So it really was a great choice by Mrs. Rendina to kind of extend our theater knowledge and everything.”

This play challenged all the actors that worked on it, but some had an extra challenge. 

“So being an understudy role, you have to learn your own part and then someone else’s lines,” senior Emma Briceno said. “You have to figure out how to be as in character for both parts as you would for any other part of the show.”

Senior Caleb Van Doornewaard played one of the supporting roles, Banjo. He describes the excitement of playing such an eccentric character.

“My favorite scene that I performed was coming onto stage and picking up Ms. Preen and screaming ‘I love you madly, kiss me, I love you madly’, and then throwing her over my shoulder and saying `Can you sign this package please?,” Van Doornewaard said. “Just the whole energy of it, it was really enjoyable.”

As the first show of the year, The Man Who Came To Dinner displayed our theater department’s acting skills as well as just set production and tech. 

“Just being able to perform and put on a show for the first crowd. There’s a certain type of energy with it that makes you very excited to perform,” Van Doornewaard said.