The high-school play “The Paper Chase” will be performed on Friday, Nov. 20, and Saturday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m.
“The Paper Chase” is about Hart (junior Jaelan Trapp), a first-year Harvard Law School student, and his struggle with the contracts class taught by the notoriously tough professor, Kingsfield (senior Gracie Strumpfer.) Hart further complicates matters when he begins dating Kingsfield’s daughter Susan (junior Avi Bhullar).
“This play was chosen to facilitate the limitations of our stage and the number and talents of our actors,” director Brian Frishman said.
However, with the small stage in the MP room, set changes pose a challenge for the actors, according to junior Austin Talamantes.
“It’s been really difficult because there are a lot of set changes, way more than other plays we have done,” he said. “For a while they tripped us up.”
Frishman, junior Daniel Hernreid and Erich Bernard, the stage manager who helps with the lights, built and painted the platform from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Nov. 7, and made some minor adjustments on Nov. 9.
Hernreid also helped make the set for last year’s play, “Seven Stories,” since he wants to be involved in a little bit of every aspect of putting the play together.
“I figure that if I want to make a career out of acting and theater, I might as well do a little of everything,” Hernreid said.
[slideshow_deploy id=’14180′]“I’m excited because it’s my first show as a senior and the first play of the year,” Strumpfer said. “But I’m kind of sad because it’s my last year working with my friends.”
Hernreid thinks that the play will be one of their finer performances. But he says it would be better if the drama department had a larger budget to work with.
“I would like to get a video camera hooked up to a monitor in the green room so we can see what is happening on stage,” Hernreid said. “Ultimately it would help with missed and late entrances.
“I would also like new curtains that automatically open with a pull of a rope, and a functional green room, because the one we have is too small.
“Lastly, we need a new MP room! Ours is falling apart. If we were to get a new MP room, all those problems that are listed above will be fixed. I want a beautiful stage which can be used for when the music department plays, but also a functional theater with actual comfortable seats for the audience.”
Junior Emory Shi will be running the lights.
Tickets are free for faculty and staff, $5 for students, and $10 for adults.
—By Allison Zhang, Sonja Hansen and Mohini Rye
