By: Nibha Patil and Valeria Gutierrez

Another one of MRHS’s fall shows is taking place in November, and this year it’s the high school version of The Play That Goes Wrong. Auditions for it took place on September 2nd, and the roles have been cast. Now,  students are working hard to prepare for it and ensure the audience gets the most enjoyable performance possible. 

   This year’s fall production is a comedy written by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer. It follows the story of a community theater group called “The Cornwall Drama Society” attempting to put on a murder mystery play, but everything that can go wrong, goes wrong: actors miss their cues, forget their lines, lose props, and even the set falls apart. 

   53 students auditioned for this play for only 16 speaking roles, which ended up being double cast, making the audition process very competitive, and casting posed a big challenge for Mrs. Greffen, the theater teacher.

   “So many students went all out and put a lot of heart and soul into it, so it was very hard to choose and narrow it to just 16,” Mrs. Greffen said.

    Auditions are not only stressful for the director, but they are also stressful for auditioners.              Everyone experiences a wave of emotions as they proceed into auditions at the start of the fall. Burdened with a new school for some or new classes for others, students also tend to carry the pressure of being selected for the play or not. Most of them go all the way to prepare for this play and put all their heart and soul into the process by memorizing all their lines and preparing for countless hours.

    Even though the auditions were nerve-racking, some students couldn’t help but feel utter happiness after being cast. The rigorous audition process made it all worth it.

   “Each section of the audition rolled by and I was really happy when I got through each of it,” exclaimed sophomore Tyler Ostopowicz.

     The fall play is not only run by Mrs. Greffen but is also directed by fellow students such as sophomore Karenin Torres and senior Neya Koshman.

   As student director, Torres helped with casting and assigning roles. The role of student directors poses a unique opportunity for students who enjoy responsibility, management and who prefer not to act or be a part of the tech crew.

   After being cast in the play, actors were rushed to ease into their roles. The cast members take all their time to prepare for the play, in and out of school.

   ”I am preparing for the fall play by looking over my script, doing deep dives on my character, and memorizing my lines,” sophomore Rocky Wagner explained.

    Preparing for the play isn’t only memorizing your lines but also understanding who your character is.

   Even after ridding themselves of the stress of auditions, actors still have to deal with balancing their schoolwork with rehearsals and memorizing their lines. This presents itself even more in senior Finn Boyle’s case, who is not only a lead in the play, but is also in charge of props and has been for the four years she’s been at this school. 

   “I read through the whole script and find what props are already written in there, and then I write those down on a list and start collecting them from what we already have,” said Boyle, “I make a lot of our props and order a lot of our props.”

   Prop-making and acting aren’t the only ways to be involved in this production; some people make and paint the sets or are in charge of lighting and special effects. 

   Whether they’re behind the scenes or directly embodying a character, there are dozens of people putting hard work into this play, doing their best to make sure they bring life to the authors’ words, so students and teachers can expect a good time when they see the show in November.