by Jordan Hanford
World history teacher Gary Colletti and earth science teacher Caleb Lamont directed “Vaude Ville,” the latest school play.
Communications teacher Lesley St. James and art teacher Elizabeth Essex helped with the performance.
In vaudeville, an entertainment form in the past century, traveling performers presented dangerous and hilarious acts. “Vaude Ville” recreated these acts including hula-hoop performers, a magician, a comedian, jugglers, a gorilla on roller skates, a guessing game and three improvised scenes, one of which involved the audience.
“I knew that having an interchangeable act would be more efficient for our theater crowd, and I wanted to do an original piece,” Mr. Colletti said.
In February, actors auditioned, and the directors got a feel for the actors’ different talents. After the cast was announced, the directors focused mainly on teaching improvisation.
The audience for “Vaude Ville” had to be just as involved as the actors. Senior audience member Adam Johnson said he enjoyed the entire performance, which was hilarious.
“The interaction made it funny, and the audience was really involved. There were jokes from both sides,” Adam said.
Trymon Lee, a sophomore tumbler in “Vaude Ville,” has performed in school plays since eighth grade when he starred in “Katrina Project” as Mayor Nagin. He was also the lead in the musical “Avatar,” directed by Mr. Colletti. He said that he really enjoys acting, but improv was out of his comfort zone.
“I have a love of acting, and I don’t really know, I just love it. Clearly it is just my element,” Trymon said.
Trymon performed in two improv scenes and the opener, in which he did a flip during the tap dance choreographed by Mrs. St. James called “Get Happy.”
“My favorite part of the experience was watching the actors grow in confidence. When they would master something, they would get excited about it, and that always makes you feel good,” Mrs. St. James said.
While teaching the students how to tap dance, Mrs. St. James learned that they needed tap shoes for the performance. She began selling bottled root beer and collected the bottle caps. Actors mashed the tops and glued them to the bottom of regular shoes. That was one of her fondest memories of the show.
“I enjoyed this cast differently than the others because of the controlled lunacies of the show,” Mr. Colletti said. “I will miss them because they were real sports about an unfamiliar style of theater. Most students think it is scripted and memorized, and this was different.”
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