Seniors Chris Magyar and Noah Shehee rehearse a fighting scene for the play, “Epic Proportions” with fine arts department teacher Harriet Anderson. The play centers around actors filming a movie. “Since it is a movie within a play, it’s pretty funny. It’s almost a ‘Three Stooges’ type of characterization. A lot of sight gags, a lot of silliness,” Anderson said. Photo by Julie Alpaugh.
By VALERIA GARCIA-POZO – News Editor
The Clarke Central Players are preparing for their performance of “Epic Proportions” that will take place in early November.
The members of the Clarke Central High School drama program will perform their play “Epic Proportions” on Thurs., Nov. 3, Fri., Nov. 4 and Sat., Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Mell Auditorium.
The Clarke Central Players were previously planning to perform the play for the regional One Act Competition on Nov. 5 in Buford, Georgia. According to female lead Makayla Moore, a junior, budgeting constraints caused members to choose between performing in the spring and going to the One Act competition.
“You have to pay royalties and fees and it takes a lot of money — like you have to pay for each performance when you rent out the play from the company,” Moore said. “We decided we’d rather do our musical ‘Grease’ than go to One Act, and of course, we can still perform ‘Epic Proportions’ here at school, so we decided between that and we chose ‘Grease’.”
Apart from the change of performing exclusively at school, fine arts department teacher and drama club sponsor Harriet Anderson notes this production will feature several new faces.
“We have a lot of brand new folks, a lot of new actors. These are not gonna be faces that people have seen in a lot of leading roles in the past, but that’s a good thing. There’s always a lot of growth,” Anderson said.
Moore notes the sheer novelty of a large portion of the cast opens learning opportunities for them and teaching opportunities for more experienced cast members.
“When you’re a lead, you kind of have to help guide others as well, especially when Harriet’s not there, like helping them along the way,” Moore said.
Senior Noah Shehee, who has been involved in drama club since his freshman year, but never previously performed, will play the male lead role of Phil. He has noticed significant differences between being a member of drama club and participating in a play.
“If you just go to the club and don’t really do the play things, then you’re mostly relegated to improv games,” Shehee said. “If you do do a show, it’s a lot more involvement in terms of just going to Mell (Auditorium) and doing things. One is games. One is actual work.”
Despite the amount of effort that such a production requires, freshman and ensemble member Robert Isakovich sees the benefits of the play as a creative and social outlet.
“I just love the idea of being in front of people and playing different roles, being an entirely different character with different attributes and a different personality,” Isakovich said. “I like making new friends. It’s really fun.”
In addition to new actors involved with the show, the play will feature members of the show’s technical crew.
“We see all the tech people come out and we’re actually on a movie set and we hear the tech crew; we see them moving onstage. They are characters of the play and we’re very much more involved than a typical show where tech is never seen, never heard until the end of a show. It’s really different in that aspect,” sophomore and crew member Ashton Drane said.
Anderson is pleased with the participation of those involved in the production.
“Everybody who’s involved in the show — you’re gonna hear their voices and see ’em, even the crew members,” Anderson said. “Everybody’s taking a part in it.”
