This week The Ravine got the pleasure of watching a stage production of Little Women held by the WKHS theatre department. Due to construction the theatre department had a change of pace producing the show in the commons instead of the auditorium, but the show must go on!
The Ravine got the opportunity to talk to theatre director Mr Robey, and one of the lead actors, Juliana Orlins. Mr. Robey told us a bit about Little Women, saying, “Little Women is the story of the March family persevering through the challenges of growing up amongst the American Civil War. Jo wishes to be a writer, which is a very different path than her sisters who seek love, high society status, and kindness. Amongst it all, their mom struggles to hold the family together while her husband is at war. It’s a classic tale of family and resilience that has resonated with readers for hundreds of years.”
When being asked how the change of scenery affected the play, Orlins shared “Obviously, it’s a big inconvenience, but it felt like it was really, really cool because I haven’t been in theatre for that long and my only shows have only ever been in the black box or on the auditorium stage. So, it gave me the experience to do something different.” She later went on to say, “I felt like it made the show more like family, because our stage was so small, and that was like our space with each other. But there still were some bothers, like everyday we had to put the pipes and drapes up and then take them down, and then we would rehearse without knowing where the audience would be.”
On the director side of things, Mr. Robey was excited for this challenge. He said, “We initially expected to have our Black Box Theater up and running on August 1st, but construction delays pushed that back. We made the decision at the beginning of October to adjust the show. Of course, we were disappointed to not have our space. However, the script requires us to have an attic in the home, and we didn’t know how to portray that in our Black Box Theater. Moving to the Commons gave us a cool opportunity to use the Commons staircase as a second story, and it was ultimately exciting.”
Theatre has lots of exciting things coming up for the rest of the school year. Orlins told us, “I’m really excited for Chicago, honestly, with my current set of theatre skills, it’s not my usual. My usual thing is high soprano, something sweet. But then this is more like raunchy kind of. A lot of dancing.” Mr. Robey continued his excitement, sharing, “Our next show is String, a musical about the Greek Fates from mythology. It tells the story of the fates being banished to Earth after refusing to save the life of one of Zeus’s flings and having to learn the hard way how important mortal lives are. This show is on November 14th and 15th at Kilbourne Middle School. We are also about to have auditions and interviews for Chicago: Teen Edition on the week of November 17th, and I cannot wait to begin!”
Our amazing theatre department has faced a lot of challenges this year, and it’s only November! But their program is strong and has been working really well under pressure thus far. The future of WKHS theatre looks very exciting and their community is excited to see what comes next.
