Toll Gate drama ready to showcase `13'

By Tessa Roy
Posted 3/9/17

By TESSA ROY Toll Gate's drama club has far more than 13 students putting on its latest production. Advisor Tim Hayes said the club got an influx of students after consolidation, many of who were involved in drama in middle school and wanted to continue

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Toll Gate drama ready to showcase `13'

Posted

Toll Gate’s drama club has far more than 13 students putting on its latest production.

Advisor Tim Hayes said the club got an influx of students after consolidation, many of who were involved in drama in middle school and wanted to continue their involvement.

Hayes found a place on the cast, ensemble, or crew of about 50 students for everyone who wanted to participate. Since November, they’ve been working on their production of 13, a musical comedy about Evan Goldman, a young Jewish boy who moves to Indiana from New York City after his parents divorce.

“He has to try to fit in, he wants kids to come to his bar mitzvah, wants to get in with the cool crowd,” Hayes said during a rehearsal on Monday night.

Liam Roberts, who plays Evan, said the show has been fun to put together and he enjoys how his character thinks.

“I like how intelligent he is and how he always uses his brain to get out of problems, with the exception of thinking about what he says before he says it because that’s where most of his troubles come from,” he said.

Roberts is one of the many freshmen who make up 13’s cast. Hayes noted that all the lead parts are played by freshmen, and that the club was lucky to have so many students who wanted to be in the production In the past, he said, it was especially hard to find boys who wanted to participate. That was no trouble this year.

“We didn’t have to pull people out of the hallways [this year],” he joked.

Another student involved with the production is Meghan Hanley, a senior who serves as the show’s stage director. She works with the actors and music on stage, while her co-director Sarah Coutu handles the technical directing. Hanley has been involved with Toll Gate’s drama club since she was a freshman, and was happy to be directing 13.

“[The show is] a lot of fun, and definitely upbeat. There are a lot of things that everybody can relate to,” Hanley said.

Hayes said the students like Roberts and Hanley do everything – he’s there to help and supervise, but the students run the show.

“It’s nice because they get to learn how to work the equipment and the boards,” he said.

The full cast of the play includes Liam Roberts, Elizabeth Barrett, Michael Graves, Jack Powell, Stephanie Pauley, Meghan Hanley, Hailey Clark, Anya Vollucci, Liz Pauley, Abby Wildgoose, Jenna Carmichael, Dylan Walsh-Randall, Robert Andrade, Maddie Cartwright, Abby Censabella, Sarah DeCosta, Berit Olsson, Kylee Howard, Megan Sarza, Dayanna DaRosa, Courtney Cardenas, Jilly Caruso, and Christine Jang.

The students will put 13 on twice this weekend, March 10th and 11th at 7 p.m. Tickets are $7 advance and $10 at the door.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here