by Holly Cuozzo ’12 

Connor Martin ('13) and Nick Cameron ('14) act out one of the more serious scenes of the play, trying to hold back laughter.

From the first day of auditions to the final curtain close, the cast members of school productions grow exponentially closer, and this holds true for their latest production: Children of Eden.  They rehearse for hours every day, bonding over things such as top-secret CAST (Creating Awesome Sherwood Theatre) traditions and mockery of the play’s lines.

Annie Sragner, a senior who has been in eight school productions, loves “all of the traditions before like Secret Santa and ‘Pawabas,’ which is … a pre-show ritual where we hold hands and chant ‘Pawabas’ for good luck,” she said.

These traditions have been active since the dawn of CAST, Sragner said, and the veterans are excited to keep the traditions going, while those cast members who are new to all of this can get confused initially.  Nonetheless, these newbies learn the traditions almost as quickly as they learn their lines and the environment soon becomes “Very, very hug-y,” noted sophomore Nick Cameron. “Everyone is good pals.”

However, many students audition simply for the thrill of performing.  Cameron stays involved in school productions because he enjoys showing people what he is good at.  In rehearsals, people are either practicing or goofing off and laughing, said Sragner, but the environment is generally a work-oriented one.

“It’s working with people you’re already friends with and learning more about people you didn’t know,” said senior Seth Kahanov, who plays the main role of “Father” in the play.

The students who participate in the plays do keep things professional when it comes to precious rehearsal time.  The week prior to the production, the players have been coming home around 10 p.m. However, they manage to keep rehearsals fun even in the most trying times.

One of the more recurring examples of this, Kahanov recanted, is mocking the lines of the play.  One of the lines reads “Noah, you go-a all the way back to the protozoa.”  “Children of Eden” is a musical rendition of the events of the Garden of Eden portrayed in the Bible, which opposes the ideas of evolution presented in this line. The cast therefore uses this as the basis for an ongoing joke.

However, Andrew Dodge, the play’s director and the school’s It systems specialist, soon brings the cast back to the business mentality so that they can focus on the upcoming show. “He knows how to keep things organized,” said Sragner.

The members of CAST bond in various ways throughout all of these events no matter what, as they become increasingly close-knit as rehearsals go on and the play’s opening night approaches.

“It’s definitely a family … it’s on that level where we can make fun of each other and know that we don’t hate each other that much,” said senior Joey Quinn.