Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Drama students to perform ‘John Lennon and Me’

Play explores life and death, friendship and peer pressure


By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer


The Wood River High School Drama Department will perform “John Lennon and Me” four times this week at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater at the Community Campus in Hailey.
Courtesy graphic

    Star Grubner is a girl with dreams, a wannabe Hollywood star and the ultimate Beatles fan, but her plans are cut short when she’s diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, an inherited disease that guarantees death at an early age.  She is now confined to a hospital where she uses her imagination for existence until she gets a new roommate, a girl named Courtney who is someone with an entirely different personality. Eventually, they learn to understand each other and ultimately learn to understand more about themselves.
    Entitled “John Lennon and Me,” this play will be performed by the Wood River High School Drama Department four times this week. It was written by award-winning playwright and author Cherie Bennett, who also wrote “Anne Frank & Me,” “Cyra & Rocky” and “Reviving Ophelia.”
    “John Lennon and Me” is described in a synopsis as an “uproarious play about life, death, power and first boyfriends.”
    “I started looking for a play this summer and being a Beatles fan, this title caught my attention,” said high school drama director Karl Nordstrom. “I ordered a perusal copy and realized the two main characters were perfect for two of my senior actors. On top of that, it was completely different than anything we had done in the past. It is the first play in my time here at Wood River where all the actors are playing characters their own age.”
    “I felt the themes of friendship, peer-pressure, fitting and not fitting in, parent/teenage relationships, stigmas about illness, and the sometimes overlooked strength of our kids in society were relevant and worth exploring,” Nordstrom said. “Plus, I got to dig through my Beatles and Lennon music to find a music score for the show.”
    The lead roles of Star Grubner and Courtney are played by Caroline Scarbrough and Eva Sorensen, respectively.
    Other performers are Alexandra Begley, Jessy Gonzalez, Logan Scarbrough, Yisel Reigle, Misty McClure, John Tatterson, Anyela De la Cruz, Nicole Puggioni, Penny Hope and Jason Black.
    Shannon Robertson is stage manager, Cherice Tatterson does hair and makeup.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com


Show times
The WRHS Drama Department performs “John Lennon and Me” four times this week at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater at the Community Campus in Hailey. Shows are tonight and Thursday at 6 p.m., on Friday at 7 p.m. and on Saturday at 1 p.m. Tickets are available at the door. The cost is $8 for adults, $5 for high school students and senior citizens, $3 for middle school students and $1 for elementary school students and younger. The play lasts about 90 minutes. It is produced by special arrangement with Dramatic Publishing Company.


 




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