It was 3:15 pm on August 14th: the first day of school. Dozens of fine arts students piled into the theater, anxiously awaiting the announcement of the shows. Within the next 45 minutes, D214 Fine Arts Coordinator Jeremy Morton and the head of Prospect’s tech crew Thomas Ringrose would reveal the fall, winter, and spring shows. Most students had come in with a preconceived notion that the fall play would be a production of “Clue,” given that the fall play landed right around Halloween weekend. However, when Ringrose switched to the next slide, “A Monster Calls” appeared in bold letters across the screen.
“We wanted to go into the scary realm,” said Ringrose, “and so JMO (Morton) started searching for plays and monsters (…) and then, in that hunt, he came across the script.”
“A Monster Calls” tells the tale of a young boy, Conor, struggling with the reality of his mother’s cancer, along with being actively bullied at school. At night, a monster begins to visit him, telling him tales that at first seem meaningless, but later lead Conor to the truth.
“It’s the universality of the story. It’s something that everyone will have some connection to on some level,” said Ringrose.
With the next click, Ringrose and Morton revealed the winter play to be less “traditional,” consisting of an entirely student produced and written production, along with another student directed piece consisting of approximately ten different scenes.
“By breaking it into something smaller, it achieves our two main goals of as many students being involved as possible, and for the winter show being able to have student design,” said Ringrose.
Finally, the most awaited announcement of the musical was to be made. Having been described as “funky” and “weird,” many students predicted that “Seussical” would end up being chosen. However, Prospect opted to go in a different direction: “Disaster,” a show that PHS had planned on producing in 2019, but was unfortunately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The premise of “Disaster” follows a group of rich adults taking part in a disco-era cruise. Unexpectedly, though, disaster after disaster hits the ship, playing on iconic films from the 70s within its plot and its music.
While “Disaster” won’t begin its process until spring, “A Monster Calls” is currently underway. The show runs from November 1-2, with a matinee on Saturday. Tickets are estimated to go live within the next month.
Ringrose and Morton showed that this is not the ordinary theater season but something unique that will be an experience for everyone involved.
“We do original plays. We do new renditions,” said Ringrose. “We take straight plays and we turn them into musicals, take musicals and turn them into straight plays. We are all about pushing the envelope of what’s expected of a high school theater program.”
For more information about d214 shows and tickets visit: https://tickets.d214.org/
