OR drama club brings back in-person theater with classic comedy
Dec 3, 2021
The family greets Alice Sycamore’s new boy friend, Tony Kirby, a little too enthusiastically. Photos by: Morgan Beard.
The show was well attended.
Essie Carmichael has always wanted to be a ballerina and prances around the stage throughout the performance.
Mr. De Pinna (left) and Paul Sycamore admire one of their new fireworks.
The students who appeared in the production.
Director and Drama Club Advisor Maxx Domingos greets the audience to before the performance.
It’s opening night!
The Old Rochester High School Drama Club made a triumphant return to in-person theater on Friday, Dec. 3, presenting the award-winning comedy “You Can’t Take it With You” in the OR auditorium to a crowd of happy theater-goers.
It was not only the club’s first live performance since producing “Elf the Musical” in December 2019, but the first production for OR’s new Drama Club advisor and theater director, Maxx Domingos.
Domingos said that for the first in-person play in two years, she thought it would be best to go with something light-hearted.
“I think comedy is a great tool for healing,” she said. “And after the last couple years we’ve had, we could all use a little of that.”
Last year, the Drama Club performed two virtual plays: “Spoon River Anthology” in the winter, and “MacBeth” in the spring. But the spring 2020 performance of “Guys and Dolls” was cancelled in the early days of the covid pandemic.
Though Domingo was not yet involved with the school’s drama program during those performances, she said that the students were excited for guests to return to the auditorium and were motivated by the audience to have a good show.
“It feels awesome [to have people here in person again],” she said. “I think [the students] feel a lot of pressure to rise to the occasion.”
“You Can’t Take it With You” was written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart in 1936 and has consistently been one of the most popular high school plays in America since the 1940s.
The story revolves around an eccentric New York family and touches on themes like young love, career paths, and finances.
Starring in the play were: Corinne Robert as Alice Sycamore, Thomas Berry as Tony Kirby, Tyler Trudeau as Martin Vanderhof, Kathleen Dunn as Penelope Sycamore, Cattarinha Nunes as Essie, Eloise Casi as Rheba, Calder Eaton as Paul Sycamore, Amaya McLeod as Mr. De Pinna, and Emily Wyman as Ed.
The play was shown four times over its single-weekend run.
