Award-winning theater students prepare local showcase
Published 12:10 am Saturday, April 30, 2016
- Play performers Ilona Smothers, left, and Kamrin Greene work the scene, ‘The Hallway,’ which is part of ‘Class Action,’ a showcase led by East St. John High School talented theater students. (Raquel Derganz Baker/L’OBSERVATEUR)
RESERVE — The students in the talented theater program at East St. John High School are at it again.
Fred Turner Jr., from left, Christopher Thompson and Divine Polk work on a break-up a scene for ‘Class Action.’
The District champs are performing their award-winning play, “Lockdown,” as well as “Class Action” next week.
The performances begin at 8 p.m. May 6 and 7 at St. John Theatre in Reserve. Tickets are $5 at the door and can be purchased before each show.
Theater performers Jonnell Crockett and Francis Means were disappointed when they recently placed second out of seven schools at the state level, but said they and the rest of the cast put it behind them before returning home from the competition.
“There was a lot of tension and also energy, not just with the cast, but in the room itself (at the state rally),” Crockett said. “There were a lot of performers there. This time we weren’t on a traditional stage like we’re used to. We were in a black box theater. When we started off, it was really fast paced, but I think that had to do with everyone being nervous. I think we were more focused on the competition rather than the performance.”
Means said when cast members got in their groove, it stopped being about the competition and more about the performance.
“Honestly, that performance may not have been our best performance, but it was the most connected I’ve ever felt with my cast mates,” she said. “I’m really proud of the cast, because that was our first time going to state.”
East St. John High drama teacher Garrett Prejean said 11 students, not all of whom are in the talented theater program, will be performing “Class Action.”
“The production ‘Class Action’ goes with our theme of the year, which is kind of high school angst,” Prejean said. “It’s about all of the stuff that happens outside of the classroom.”
Prejean said the play depicts situations between two people who went to prom but didn’t really want to go together. There is bullying, a girl who is pregnant and another student dealing with going to a psychiatrist.
“There is one scene between a boyfriend and a girlfriend, where their consciences are talking as well as them which is really funny,” Prejean said. “The consciences are telling what’s really going on as the boyfriend and girlfriend put on a façade. This play focuses on things that usually effect kids in high school, which are usually things on the outside. Everything is little, single scenes. There are 10 separate scenes that can be rearranged whichever way we want.”
