The Advanced Drama, Drama Basics & HS Drama Club hosts A Night of One-Acts, Love, Lies & Laughter
With the combination of three groups – Drama Basics Class Production, Advanced Drama Class Production, and High School Drama Club Production – the Drama Club once again brought fabulous, comical, and heartwarming acts alive.On December 28, teachers, students, and parents sat in the seats in front of the locker area’s stage on the 2nd floor, and waited for the play to start. At 6:10 pm, Mrs. Sharon Ma, the advisor of the Drama Club, welcomed the audience, introducing the acts and contributions made by the drama club members.
After Mrs. Ma’s greetings, “The Nose” – a Russian play written by Nikolai Gogol, “The Proposal” – another Russian play written by Anton Checkhov, and “The Christmas Diva” – an American play written by Earl J. Dias, was performed by actors from different age groups, harmonizing together, and creating a warm atmosphere.
“The Nose” shows Major Kovalyov’s journey to find his missing nose. This comedic play brought smiles to the audience’s faces. “The Proposal” illustrats a fight between Stepan Chubukov, Natlaya Stepanovna (daughter of Stepan Chubukov), and Ivan Lomov (man in love with Natlaya Stepanovna) for a land’s ownership, with a side of situational humor. Performed solely by three actors and actresses with relatively small number of props – a couch, chair, a glass of water, two cups, and a small shelf – their impressive acting entertained the audience. Lastly, “The Christmas Diva” showed Whitney Sayre’s journey into becoming one of the world’s top singers. This act commonly showed scenes of families gathering together.
As Love, Lies & Laughter closed to an end, all of the actors, actresses, and Mrs. Ma came forth to receive applause for their wonderful play. Then, Mrs. Ma recognized the seniors – Tiger Ko (12B), Tiffany Yeh (12C), Luke Chong (12C), Vicky Zhang (12B), and Yiyun Wu (12C) – and delivered gifts to two very special people, Yiyun and Tiger, for directing the performances.
“We wanted to create something more intimate and less formal, so we were drawn to the stage in the middle school locker area. I [oversaw] a play by the HS Drama Club, and we usually only meet once a week afterschool. To rehearse for “Christmas Diva,” I had to call several additional rehearsals leading up the show, and everyone just had to pull out their personal time to come and rehearse. It’s definitely more difficult preparing for a drama performance without designated class time for rehearsals. Everyone was so busy!” commented Yiyun, “I knew that if something did go wrong, we would just improvise and going along with it. That’s what acting is all about. As a director, I’m extremely proud of everyone in my cast, and I think we all grew tremendously throughout the rehearsal process.”
“This is the first year where the drama class and club have had a fall performance, and I’m really happy that I got to be a part of Love, Lies, and Laughter,” commented Tiffany. “Overall, I’d say it went unexpectedly well, especially since in almost every rehearsal at least one person would mess up a little. I’m very thankful for all the help we received from other clubs and teachers, and the support we had from parents and students. I enjoyed being on stage with my peers, and even just setting up for the night. I loved it when the audience laughed at what we said or did; that sort of gave me a sense of accomplishment like “Oh, they understood that point!”
Yiyun then talked about how she felt as a senior who is soon graduating the SMIC Private School. “I look to the future with uncertainty and excitement. I just want to enjoy the limited time I have at SMIC before leaving.”
Here are some photos taken during their show!
by Kelly Woo