The newest play coming to WHS is packed with excitement and adventure. The students performing the play and working behind the scenes have worked extremely hard to create a play to remember: The Once-in-a-Lifetime Play. However, the twist is that instead of having the scenes in the main auditorium, they will be performed in the Black Box to mix up the location and introduce a new scenery to the future of WHS’s plays.
The play satirizes the early days of Hollywood when silent films were transitioning to talkies. It follows the characters May Daniels, Jerry Hyland, and George Lewis, who are tired of their Vaudeville Act. The three performers decide to head to Hollywood and open a school to teach movie stars how to speak their new “talkies” (motion pictures with synchronized sound for dialogue). The rest you will have to find out during the show!
Senior Skylar Hopper shares, “The coolest thing about the black box is that you can play into subtly more. We can be more quiet in certain moments, rely on people noticing very specific expressions we make, and just play around with more subtle nuances that wouldn’t necessarily be picked up as often on a larger scale.”
A Black Box theatre is a theatrical or performative space, usually a dark, square room with a horizontal and black painted floor. Also, it is designed as a flexible configuration so the audience seating can be rearranged to fit the performance’s needs. The Wilsonville Performing Arts Center project involved a renovation of the school’s former theater into a Career Technical Education classroom, a Robotics Lab, and most importantly, the new Black Box theater.
Senior Grace Haack is very passionate about this new production and says, “Changing the location is perfect! The show is intimate already, and adding a closeness with the audience just ties it all together. It’s definitely a learning curve, to learn how to act on this new “stage” but this show definitely would not be good as a mainstage production. Also, it’s new and different! You can sit in the front row and be in a new found “splash zone” for props and actors. There’s more jokes, and it’s become a whole new personalized experience for the audience to interact and see the actors.”
The new location is significant because it brings several new techniques that can enhance the overall performance. For example, switching to perform in the black box could help handle the audience in a way that fits the play style. Also, it can be a cool way to get creative with the staging without having to worry about the tech needs like lighting set-ups. Additionally, the student directors will have a chance to experiment more freely by setting up the stage for their vision.
The Once In a Lifetime play is the Final show of the 24-25 season and the seniors’ last show at WVHS. Seats are limited since it takes place in a smaller scene, so get your tickets as soon as possible. The show times are held on two back-to-back weekends, May 15th-17th and May 22nd-24th.