Middle-schoolers leave ‘em rolling in the aisles

By K. Cunningham

The middle school play opened up the 2001-2002 acting year with the performance of an extremely funny play, “Backstage” by Shirley McNichols, directed by Victoria Mallahan.

“Backstage” is about a high school play two days before opening night. To add to the confusion, the math teacher, portrayed by Wynn Tingley and the principal, played by Holly Parsons, keep trying to get the drama program canceled. There’s a wrench thrown in their plan occurrs when a board member, Hannah Hillard, does indeed cancel the after school drama class and promotes it to a full time class.

With opening night jitters Mallahan said, “This was a hard play to direct because there are a lot of funny lines and it was hard to get the kids to deliver them at the right moment.”

“It was hard to memorize my lines, especially the long ones, I just practiced a lot,” said Jacob Hillard. Camille Vega, on the other hand said “It was not hard to memorize my lines, it was just hard to say them on stage in front of a lot of people.”

This cast has a lot of acting experience. Some members are veterans of commercials and in TV shows. “The kids worked together and there was no segregation by grade. They all worked together and supported each other and gave encouragement throughout the play,” said Mallahan.

So many kids tried out for the play that instead of cutting a number of kids, they where given the opportunity to present a short play before the main play. The cast decided to do a parody on “The Weakest Link” using celebrities..
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