Setting Traditions and Saying Goodbye
Theater department hosts spring showcase to honor theater students and seniors
Seniors perform a medley of songs from the four musicals of their high school careers.
On Thursday May 19, the theater department organized their first annual Spring Showcase and Senior Ceremony. The event honored the seniors involved in theater and featured production programs showcasing the different works of enrolled freshmen, sophomores, and juniors in the theater department. The seniors honored at the ceremony included Allison Callahan, Alexa Farah, Brooke Wilkins, Caitlin Carpenter, Chloe Kim, Matthew Lindley, and Sarah Valencia.
Ceremonies had been held in the past to honor seniors, but this year seniors took the lead role in directing and scripting the final performances for the underclassmen to perform. Callahan, who is the Keeper of Tradition for the all-school musical production, described the ceremony as being able to “capture how special the people who shape the program truly are.”
Sophomore Sophia Ashbahian, a Theater I student, added that “it was a unique show in that it felt particularly intimate. It was a moment of celebration for our seniors and our company that just happened to be done on stage.”
The ceremony consisted of awards, improv, performances, and speeches, done by all different levels of theater students. The awards included the Underclass Musical Theater award, the Outstanding Performance award, and Rising Star award. The showcase concluded with a senior class medley that consisted of songs from the past four all-school musical productions: Chicago (2019), Into the Woods (2020), A Chorus Line (2021), and The Spongebob Musical (2022).
One of the last marks left by the theater department’s Class of 2022 will be the upcoming comedy-musical Urinetown on Friday, June 3. This is the first time that the department will host a third major production in one year—in addition to the usual fall drama and spring musical—a tradition the Class of 2022 will start and hope to leave behind as their legacy in the program.
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Awards were given to outstanding members of the theater department in acting, stage management, costume work, and props.
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Five freshmen in theater engage in “Theater Games.”
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Seniors Brooke Wilkins, Allison Callahan, and Alexa Farah sit on stage.
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Seniors Matthew Lindley and Caitlin Carpenter watch the underclassmen perform.
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Sophomores Roman Gatti and Zachary Falkenstern give an improvised performance.
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Gatti and Falkenstern pose with theater teacher Susan Van Buskirk and their STANJ Improvised Pairs trophy.
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Seniors Sarah Valencia and Chloe Kim perform Kim’s original song, “All the Time.”
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Gatti and sophomores Abigail Dennis and Sofia Fonseca act in senior Jane Murdoch’s play, “A Mess of Miscommunication.”
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Junior Sergio Garcia plays a barista in Wilkins’ original play, “Confidence is Like Coffee.”
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Garcia on stage with junior Kyra Baily and sophomores Ava Gallucci and Sadie Beavers.
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Farah sings “How it Ends” from the Broadway musical “Big Fish.”
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Wilkins performs “Maybe This Time” from the musical drama “Cabaret.”
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Seniors perform a medley of songs from the four musicals of their high school careers.
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The seniors embrace after performing their senior medley.
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The seniors pose after their senior performance.
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