After rehearsals and sound checks, the annual Thespian Showcase was held in the auditorium May 13 and it included five monologues, three musical selections, one scene selection and one student-written play. “Strung Along” was written by seniors Derek Roberts and Payton Johnson and was also directed by Roberts. The cast was made up of Theater 1, 2, 3 and 4 students, as well as members of the Drama Club. Through its well-written dialogue and impressive student performance, “Strung Along” delivered a very entertaining performance, even if there were a few technical problems.
The play starts off in a piano store, where we find out there has been a murder. The owner of the store, Piano Store Jeff (sophomore Wyatt Jones) calls Detective Harvey (senior Phillip Mixson) after discovering Martha’s dead body (freshman Sophie Yoke). The detective rounds all of the possible suspects up and interrogates them on their whereabouts the night of the murder. As we learn about everyone’s alibis, we also learn more about Harvey’s past and it becomes more and more obvious who the killer is. The plot of this play was pretty simple, though it definitely had a few moments that shocked the audience.
The cast did a great job of playing their characters. One that stood out to me was how Mixson played Harvey in such a compelling way that I was starting to get annoyed with how aloof he seemed, especially considering this is his second ever time acting on stage. And junior Hayden Carey’s performance as Bethany, Martha’s best friend, was perfect. Her ability to play this ditzy and boy-obsessed character, and then just being able to snap out of it is so impressive. Everybody made really good physical and vocal character choices. I really could believe that this cast of my peers were the characters they were playing. Line delivery was on point for the most part. There were times where I had trouble hearing certain characters, but they were coming in when they were supposed to, just kind of quiet. Because of some lighting problems, most of the actors had to improvise some lines and character actions, but there was only one that I noticed, and had Roberts not pointed them out after the fact, I would not have known. All of the actors did a wonderful job, especially with being fully under student writing and direction.
I loved the reusing of the piano from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” (PHS Players’ spring musical). The set was minimal, but you could still tell when scenes were happening in different places. There were some major lighting issues throughout, with washes not coming on when they were supposed to or spotlights not turning on in time. There were multiple scenes where I wasn’t sure what was happening on stage because I couldn’t see the characters. Overall, the visual storytelling was probably the weakest part of this production, but I don’t think it took away from the overall experience.
The audience, while on the smaller side, loved the play. They laughed at the right parts and were focused and quiet when they needed to be. While this play didn’t have a major emotional impact on its viewers, it definitely left everyone in a good mood, especially in a scene towards the end where Mixson’s and sophomore Zach Gaston’s, who played Harvey’s ex-police partner Detective Louie, characters made up and “kissed” behind their pickleball paddles. It was such a funny note to end the show on and I think that everybody in the audience laughed at it, since it seems like it comes from out of nowhere.
Overall, Roberts did a wonderful job with writing and directing this play. The future is bright for all of the cast and crew that worked on this production. I went in hoping for a good show, and they blew that expectation out of the water.
