On Thursday, April 13, two vehicles left from McCaskey High School to go to Washington Elementary. One was a truck, which contained speakers, two collapsible screens, five giant wooden walls with wheels on the bottom, a sound board, two projectors, a box full of pirate and cowboy costumes, a box full of maps, telescopes, other props, two large monitors, and three fold up tables.

The other vehicle was a bus, with 18 students and one teacher.

The spring play was going on tour. 

It was a production months in the making, and a departure from the McCaskey-based Spring Plays of old. Traveling to each elementary school meant that our show would be accessible to more students, schools wouldn’t have to pay for buses to take their students to McCaskey, and actors could get experience in live touring production. It also meant a lot more work for everyone involved in producing the play. 

I will be the first to admit that I had many doubts. 

In my experience of live theater up until then, sets had never moved farther than a few feet, roles were at most double-cast, and actors did not cycle through both production and performance roles. 

But the Spring Play is, at its essence, the breaking down of any preconceived notions about what theater and performance is. 

My sophomore year, Rockin’ Wizard Camp was live streamed from an empty auditorium. It was written through a collaboration between Ms. Nolt, the director of the Spring Play and a Media Studies teacher, and students who joined via zoom call to collaborate. We added pre-recorded videos with effects like broomstick flying and shapeshifting to enhance the experience, masks were incorporated into our costumes, and blocking was explicitly socially distanced. 

My junior year, I spent most of 3…2…1… Second to None! inside a clear plastic panel “hologram”, wearing a giant blue wig full of plastic eyes.

But blue wig and livestream considered, this year’s play has been the most daunting and the most fun. 

It’s daunting because each Tuesday and Thursday that we perform, it’s a different one of three acts, with different sets of characters and different people in those roles. It’s daunting because there are lines I still have to memorize for my Narrator role next week, since I was so focused on my Pirate role for our first performance. It’s daunting because each school holds different technical and display issues, many of which are difficult to predict. 

But that unpredictability holds great gratification and impact.

During the first run, students, who filled the roles of actors, technical directors, sound managers, camera operators, video switchers, and more, worked tirelessly to carry the five, large wooden walls in through the doors of Washington and wheel all of the monitors and sound equipment into the school’s small auditorium. 

We helped to set up the large, collapsible screen which showed the words and the actors’ faces to the audience alongside the actual stage, finished mic checks and put on costumes, while others troubleshot connection issues between the mac and the large monitor which showed the words to the actors. 

After welcoming the elementary students and talking to them about their own upcoming production of Willy Wonka, we got started. Standing behind one of the walls, waiting to go onstage, I was struck by the volume and energy of all of the kids. 

The spring play is designed to be engaging and interactive, and the opportunities to yell “yeehaw!” and “arrr” were not missed by the elementary students. 

In that moment, when fifty 8-0 year olds all yelled “yeehaw!” in unison, I knew that all of it had been worth it. The late rehearsals, carrying all of the walls, trying to memorize my lines, and wondering if what we were doing was ever going to make a difference. 

That Thursday was the first of many productions. The next week, we went to Ross and Lafayette, and none of it was the same.