Photo submitted by Sean Walsh.
At the recommencement of school at Malden High, students always look forward to the several performing events for entertainment to keep them from worrying about their new classes.
The Play Production team at Malden High School always gets a kick into the year with a play. Jennifer Clapp, an English teacher at Malden High School and co teacher for Play Production this year, started Play Production in 2001. According to Clapp, ¨Play production for the last five years began the year with a Musical¨ but this year, they decided to make a little change.
Play Production began its debut in 2001 with William Shakespeare´s very own play ¨As you Like it¨ and this year they are bringing it back.
Sean Walsh is the Director of Play Production and an English teacher. Walsh, Clapp and their students in Play Production that are actors or technicians have been working long hours during and after school to perfect the play to the best of their ability in a way that its theme will be well conveyed to its audience. They began working on the play approximately a month ago.
Why Perform ¨As you Like it¨?
The original ¨As You Like it¨ was a ¨pastoral-comedy believed to have been written in 1599.¨ According to Clapp, ¨this romantic comedy is one of the first true romantic comedies where multiple people meet, like each other, experience some difficulties, and then learn how to get over those difficulties.¨ And this year some AP Literature students not only read the book but Play Production has decided to act it out in a modern setting of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Walsh and Clapp agreed that ¨the reason why [they] put the play together in a contemporary setting was because [they] wanted the audience to be able to connect to it.¨
¨As You Like It¨ also touches base on sexuality and sexual orientation. Senior Michelle Chan plays Jacques, ¨a character who was originally a boy but [Play Production] gender-bended his character.”
There is great excitement around this play as well. Walsh said ¨´As You Like It´ is a play that is comedic, lively, light and bright, [which is] a great way to start the year.¨
When asked, Jenna Vanella, who plays main character Rosalind, exclaimed that ¨[she] loves that [they] are using different instruments and how they are incorporated [them] into the show. It is not a musical but it has plenty of music.¨
Senior Annely Paz and Junior Rodneisha Normil, members of the cast, expressed that ¨Play Production is a time consuming class to take part in general . . . ¨[and that this play] required a lot of staying after school but [they] believe that that time they put in will truly show once [they] perform it.”
Actors Chan, Paz, Normil, Vanella, and the teachers all agreed that the hardest part of putting this play together was keeping Shakespearean slang and language. Clapp asserted that ¨”It was important for [them] to find a way to translate certain words in a way that the audience is able to relate to some scenes and understand them as well . . . Memorizing lines was another setback.¨
Chan stated that ¨people should not be intimidated by the language¨ that is expected to be in the play. ¨The show is true madness once you learn about everything that goes on, but when it all comes together, it will truly be beautiful. It is funny and heartwarming and definitely an experience you wouldn’t want to miss.¨
Play Production will be performing ¨As You Like It¨ in the Jenkins Auditorium the weekend before Thanksgiving (the 15th,16th, and 17th of November). Tickets will be sold days before the performance. Walsh and Clapp and the other actors hope to see several students come explore the show.
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