C.A.S.T. Concludes Chapter in Its History With Successful Performance

by Adam Levine ’20

 The spring play is always an event to look forward to. It provides a refreshing step away from the song and dance of the fall musical and allows students to showcase their acting abilities. This year’s play, “Rumors” by Neil Simon, was able to do just that while also providing the audience with a hilarious experience they will not quickly forget.

 The lights came up on the Ertzman stage, which had been transformed into the living room of Charley and Myra Brock. Chris (senior Lucy Kuchma) and Ken Gorman (junior Nick Weinrich) are the first guests to arrive at the house, expecting a fun night at the Brocks’ 10th anniversary party. But when they get there, they find that that Myra is missing and Charley had shot himself in the ear. As more couples arrive to the party, they must try to keep Charley and Myra’s secrets without even knowing what really happened themselves. The antics of the plot and characters’ behaviors escalate as the stories get wilder and wilder.

 Each cast member brought their own unique energy to the part while still being able to capture the essence of their character. Senior Natalie Murray, who played Claire Ganz, and junior Sean Alperin, who played Len Ganz, beautifully portrayed their two sarcastic and critical characters while still being able to make the audience burst into laughter after just about every line. Perfectly timed one-liners and random yells of frustration or confusion presented by every character left many audience members laughing non-stop. Even with all the comedic acting, we were still left shocked through the many twists and turns of the plot.

 One of the biggest twists was seeing C.A.S.T. sponsor and director Andrew Dodge on stage playing the role of Officer Pudney. Dodge spent his last C.A.S.T. show that he will be directing on the stage, which he believes was an interesting opportunity to be able to perform with the students he has worked with for so long.

 “It’s been a very rewarding experience to work with the students in the program and develop the program,” said Dodge.

 Dodge will be passing the baton over to English teacher Elizabeth Kominski who will be the director and sponsor of C.A.S.T. next school year. Before coming to Sherwood, Kominski led the theatre program at Northwest. Despite not picking up the theatre program this year, Kominski has already identified leadership in the debate club and will be leading the other theatre programs that Sherwood offers.

 “I’m very excited to get involved in [C.A.S.T.], and I feel like, as coming from an outsider into Sherwood, I see there is so much talent in the building,” said Kominski. “There are so many musically talented kids and good actors and just all-around great performers so I really want to tap into that energy and create some really awesome productions.”

 “Rumors,” was absolutely hilarious, which the cast did an amazing job of putting on. It creates excitement to see what C.A.S.T. will do next school year and how Kominksi’s new leadership will start a new chapter for the school’s theatre productions.