Notes from the Assistant Director
I miss spending time with my students. (I realize there was probably supposed to be a preamble before the gushing - there’s a way these things are done, gosh-darn-it-all - but I didn’t see much point in faffing about.) I miss the offhand jokes, the impromptu mentoring, and frankly just the casual opportunity to be part of each other’s lives. Virtual education does not offer these moments. Some of that is due to technological limitations, some to user error. But the LHS drama students were determined not to allow their creative impulses to go to waste this fall. They rallied around this silly play, and the results - while still quite silly - have also invested this awkward COVID-induced shutdown with meaning and purpose. Help Desk speaks to the quirks of our disconnectedness and reminds us that no problem is too small for a quick call for help. My huge appreciation goes out to everyone who overcame all the obstacles to make this play (or is it our first LHS short film?) a success, with special thanks going out to: Angela Smithhisler for her constant dedication to the students and their potential; Ricky Guariglia for his wit, talent and affable style; Kevin Aquino for his unshakable leadership and organization. Congratulations to the cast and crew of Help Desk!
Notes from the Director
My goodness, what a year 2020 has been. Of course, I don't need to tell you that. We've all experienced these past 7 months together, all the ups and downs, heartaches and celebrations, highs and lows. It took me a solid few months to finally get over the loss of our spring musical Newsies, which would have been a stunner had we been able to perform it for you. Then, the long summer months flew by, and the announcement for virtual learning was made. Of course, this brought on a new wave of uncertainty, especially for our Performing Arts wing. For a few weeks, I thought that the fall would be devoid of any type of performance. It was only when I met with my six Drama Club officers who helped me understand that ANY performance, even if it had to be virtual, was what my students were craving. And so, here we are. This has definitely been a learning process for all involved; we had to figure out how to tackle online auditions and callbacks, online rehearsals, online directing, etc... Not to mention, the amount of video editing required to pull this show off has been a staggering amount of hours.
A massive amount of gratitude needs to be shouted from the rooftops for the following people: To the cast, for showing up with enthusiasm and being creative in your role, to Kevin, our organized and hardworking stage manager, for tackling on this previously unknown tech role, to Ricky G, our talented and dedicated student director, for rolling with the punches and being a stalwart leader to this cast, to Dan Lake, for endless support and well timed jokes to keep everybody going. And thank you to my husband, who has endured listening to online rehearsals for the past 6 weeks and not kicking me out of the house for it. But, we made it, and we poured our hearts into this show. So, we truly hope you enjoy the performance.
