Mainstage Productions

Over the past three terms of this academic year, the theater department put up three mainstage productions: “Blood Wedding,” “Into the Woods” and “The Laramie Project.” For each production, students were required to audition for roles and dedicate the usual sports block towards rehearsal.

BLOOD WEDDING

The fall’s mainstage production, “Blood Wedding,” is a Spanish play that looks into the conflicts of humanity in violent chaos. The play is based around the conflict between two suitors fighting over a bride, which is expressed through thematic images of knives, horses and more. Senior Alyse Clinton, who played the bride in “Blood Wedding,” said, “The show itself was also so fun because it was a show based in reality, but with a lot of supernatural elements. It required an open mind and a lot of creativity to go with all of the twists and turns.” Clinton described the work put into the set, music, costumes and acting as “rigorous” and thoroughly enjoyed English instructor Todd Hearon’s work as director.

Additionally, Clinton believed the show was a great bonding experience for the cast in spite of the depressing theatrical atmosphere. “That show was where I made some of my best friends at Exeter this year. It was a depressing show, as all the shows kind of were this year. But I was a show with a lot of inside jokes that we all bonded over,” Clinton said.

INTO THE WOODS

“Into the Woods” is a musical based off of different story lines of fairy tale characters such as Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. In addition to memorizing lines, the performers also learned to work with the musicians. Choreography stacked on top of the standard blocking rehearsal. Clinton described the show as “ambitious for a high school,” but she felt proud of all the work her fellow performers and director Robert Richards of the Theater and Dance department dedicated to the production.

“We all put our all in so we could leave a lasting impression on Exeter.”

Lower Jacqui Byrne played Sleeping Beauty and loved getting to know the cast while watching everyone “grow into their roles” as the term progressed. “It was a lot of time commitment and at some points everyone was stressed out, but it was worth it in the end,” Byrne said.

Clinton performed as Cinderella’s stepmother, and the musical was one of her favorites as a toddler. “It had always been a dream of mine to be in it,” she said. In addition to acting and singing, Clinton helped Richards and upper Maya Pierce block scenes during rehearsal.

One of the differences between the other two shows was that the cast was noticeably larger. “It wasn’t as unified as ‘Blood Wedding’ or ‘The Laramie Project,’ but we all worked together so well,” Clinton said.

Richards found the musical to be a success, noting memorable moments such as upper Claire Dauge-Roth’s performance as Cinderella in the song “No One is Alone.” On one of the show nights, upper Maya Pierce and lower Ruby DiCarlo stepped in to “save the day” when another actor was too sick to perform. “They got their lines down in what seemed like minutes,” Richard said.

THE LARAMIE PROJECT

The Senior Acting Ensemble put on “The Laramie Project,” a play portraying the reaction to the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. Shepard, a gay student attending the University of Wyoming, was beaten to death in Laramie, Wyoming. More attention surrounding the absence of hate crime laws emerged as a result of the coverage of this case.

Clinton emphasized the importance of using theater as a way of keeping tragic stories like Shepard’s alive and as she believes they are “important for people to hear.” The cast was set on tackling the play; she continued, “We need to fix the problems in society that create people like his killers. After our first read through in the first days of class this term, I saw tears in all our eyes and felt the weight of the show on our shoulders.”

The play received positive reviews from students in the audience. Lower Milena DeGuere found the performance and message of the play to be powerful. “The subject matter was also very raw and intense but so important to learn about, and I’m really glad I went,” she said.

As this play was performed by the Senior Acting Ensemble in the spring, it was an emotional final performance for the actors. Clinton said that the fact that this was the last show also pushed the cast to put in as much emotion and meaning into each line as possible. “We all put our all in so we could leave a lasting impression on Exeter.”

Richards said that the cast blew him away. “We designed a set to have the audience sitting among them, to highlight the community factor of this play. ... It was a powerful, transcendent way to end the year,” he said.

For Clinton, although the plays were all so different in their stories, characters and feeling, all of them changed her in numerous ways. “Though all the shows centered on hard themes, we all managed to have fun and enjoy the work we were putting in. ... I am so thankful to be at Exeter and get to experience these things and so so sad that I have to leave this wonderful community,” she said.