1st Place, News Story
2024-25, Division 2, News Writing
By Peyton Crane
Portrait
East Lansing HS
After Sarah J Thompson’s college theater’s curtains closed, others opened, as she picked up a clipboard to start directing plays and musicals at ELHS, as well as to keep a connection to something she loves.
This year the ELHS theater, cast and crew, are working diligently to produce the fall play this year, “Peter and the Starcatcher”. According to Thompson, the two-year director of the school’s plays and musicals, the play is an overview of how the events of “Peter Pan” came to be. Based on the 2004 novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, “Peter and the Starcatcher” is a story that explains how the characters of the novel and play “Peter and Wendy” came to be.
“We are doing ‘Peter and the Starcatcher,’ which is the prequel to Peter Pan,” Thompson said. “So it’s about how Peter gets to Neverland, how Captain Hook loses his hand, and how the lost boys start their journey as the Lost
Boys”
Thompson chose “Peter and the Starcatcher” for the fall play because of the positive experiences she has connected with the play. In college, Thompson was a part of their production of the play, and she wants students at ELHS to experience the same worthwhile connection.
“Even though it is a play, there is some music in it, so it’s not technically a musical, but it’s a
little bit of a musical,” Thompson said.
Thompson is very impressed with the work the cast has been doing this year.
“[The cast and crew]they’ve been doing really well this year.”
Mya Gonzalez (10) plays Mrs. Bumbrake, a supporting character who is Molly Astor’s nanny. Gonzalez is looking forward to “making the audience laugh” due to Mrs. Bumbrake’s nature of playfulness and girlish charm even in her older age.
“My favorite part so far is probably the singing and the dancing for Act Two,” Gonzalez
said.
John Furtaw (12) plays Lord Astor, a Victorian English gentleman who is the father
of Molly Astor. Peter and the Starcatcher is Furtaw’s first play. Due to the somewhat musical aspects of the play and connections in the play has led him consider acting in the spring musical.
“My character is pretty cool. He’s, rich and stuff, and I get to talk with a British accent,” Furtaw said. “So that’s cool.”
Young Molly Astor, who is one of the main protagonists of the play, is represented by Zoe
Yingling (12). Yingling has been a part of the school’s plays and musicals from the spring (musical) of her freshman year, and says after all the rehearsal process has been put together the play becomes something “magical”.
“[The performances] It’s kind of just like you’re in a different world really, especially in full
costume, with all the lights and when everything and the set gets put together,” Yingling said. “It’s kind of just like magical, I guess, and it’s like, all that hard work is
worth it.”
The theater this year has a cast of 16 and over 20 technicians who have been working from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays to Thursdays until a couple of weeks before the show, when the cast and crew will be at the school after hours Mondays to Fridays. The theater this year has gotten a tech director and many technicians working with the cast each day after school to make the fall play even better.
“It’s going to be really good this year, we have the tech director, so the tech is going to be really awesome,” Thompson said.
Out of her 23-year career, this is the first year at ELHS for the Performing Arts and Technical Manager, Amber Rockey. She has been working with the crew on this year’s play. Rockey supervises student technicians in all areas such as costumes, lights, scenery
and sound. While also managing the two auditoriums for the district at the middle school and high school.
“We’ve been having fun sewingthe costumes because it’s a pretty unique place,” Rockey said. “So there’s not a rental package we can get for the costumes for this show. So we’ve had to sew and create a lot of things, but it’s fun because we’re making a whole bunch of
pirate costumes. I just made an elegant sequin gown that’s for a mermaid. So that’s really fun.”
According to Rockey the crew started with 28 technicians but has dropped down to 25 due to various reasons. The crew has been working hard to get from preproduction to running the show.
“The most fun is running the show,” Rocky said. “But you can’t be on stage crew and run the show if you haven’t helped build the set. You can’t be a dresser helping backstage with costumes if you haven’t helped build the costumes. You got to do the hard work to do the
fun work.”
One of the technicians Ali Andrews (10) has been working on the sets for the play, which
started two weeks after school started, when the cast was made. Andrews has been enjoying the process with a small group of friends, in their area of work.
Tori Logan (10) another technician working on the play agrees with Andrews, that a small
close group of people has made the work environment fun.
“My favorite part is probably the stage crew because no one can see backstage,” Logan said. “So we just dance and have fun backstage.”
While some of the technicians have been working hard they have created props like movable parts of the set, such as ponds that will change throughout the play itself. Furtaw, Gonzalez and Yingling are a small part of a larger cast, who have been working to show
Peter and the Starcatcher, just like Andrews and Logan who have been working on technical aspects of the show.
They have been working hard on holding the fall play while having fun doing it. The theater will be holding the four showtimes of the production from Nov. 14 through Nov. 16
starting at 7 p.m., the last possible
showing is on Nov. 17 at 2 p.m.
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