This Friday, 17 Homestead Students set out for their first Competition of the year. It was a day of many firsts. First time they’ve competed on a Friday, first time they performed the play for an audience, first time they went to Oshkosh West, first time anyone in District 9 saw a set as large as ours.
For the past six weeks, 6 stage crew students, 1 costume designer and 10 actors have been designing, creating, building and practicing the play Around the World in 80 Days, an adaptation of Jules Verne’s famous book. These kids are talented! The only thing their director did was adapt the play, these students for the first time created everything themselves. The crew members designed and built the massive set complete with a giant clock. They also designed the lights, sound and projections. Emily Eckhardt, our costume designer built two Victorian dresses for the show, while the Actors created amazing characters and helped pick music for the show.
But back to this Friday, the 17 students loaded up a truck full of their set and boarded a bus for Oshkosh West high school. Everyone was excited, but nervous. There was so much riding on everyone and they all knew the pressure of being the one to mess up. There was also the added pressure of not going over time. From a bare stage to bare stage, the show can only be 40 minutes long. That means the cast and crew has 40 minutes to put up a set that is 12 high, 24 feet long and 8 feet wide, perform the play and then take everything down after the performance. We had been going over time the week before and it wasn’t until Monday that they started going under time… 20 seconds under! Luckily we had nothing to worry about. Somehow for this competition, we shaved a minute and a half off our running time. We flew!
We flew through the judges hearts as well, with all three advancing us to Sectionals which will be in Neenah on November 8th. If you see these students in the hall, congratulate them on a job well done.
Cast:
Phileas Fogg
Alex Gieske
Passepartout
Alessandra Gouverneur
Inspector Fix
Shawn Wilkerson
James/Aouda
Zak Heniger
Flower seller/ Speedy/ Bunsby
Alexis Thompson
Beggar Woman / Colonel Francis/ Train Porter
Michaela Miller
Street Sweep / Mudge / Suez Consul / Hong Kong Consul
Lauren Brill
Flanagan/ Meera / Liverpool Officer
Jada Davis
Sullivan / Calcutta Policeman
Maggie Collins
Fallentin / Sailor / Peninsula Conductor
Teighlor McGee
Crew:
Costume Designer
Emily Eckhardt
Floor Lighting
Nathan Hunt
Sound
Erin Meskimen
Projections
Derek Fisher
Lighting
Sveta Tenges
Props
Aeriana White-Monahan
Clock
Danny Seaton
Act Out 