WOODBURY — The Nonnewaug Drama Club may have wrapped up its spring show, but the group is already moving forward into next year’s plans. With the shows picked out for next fall and next spring, drama students look forward to the next year on stage.
“I must say that I am very excited for both shows this year. Our fall play, Dracula, will have quite a lot of special effects for students to take charge of — think fog, shadow play, and blood, obviously,” said Catherine Pelkey, the drama club’s director. “The spring musical, Guys & Dolls, is one of the most beloved musicals, featuring lots of dancing, comedy, and pizzazz.”
With this year’s fall and spring shows passing, Twelve Angry Jurors in the fall and Godspell in the spring, students looked back on what they learned from the year and get the same exciting feeling for what’s to come.
“The best thing I have learned from drama is the life skills of performing for a group and forming bonds with your fellow cast members,” said Bishop Aldrich, a sophomore at NHS. “Those bonds you create in such a short time are truly awe-inspiring. I remember my freshman year I was quite disheartened to see the seniors leave even though we had only known each other for three or four months.”
Not only do the students in drama have fun on and off stage, but they learn a lot from what they do.
“I would say probably everything could be worked on more,” said Claire Rogers, another NHS sophomore drama student. “Not to say anything is bad in particular, but I know with everyone’s potential in the drama club, we can always do more as a group to get better and perform better. Being more flexible and absorbing acting recommendations like a sponge can really help open your mind to perspectives you didn’t think about before.”
With the plans for next year flowing in, reminiscing and going over what needs to be worked on to improve is the best way to make every show one to remember.
“One of our big limiting factors for the shows we’ve done is that our cast wasn’t large enough to put on a large production or there weren’t enough crew members to execute the special effects that we wanted to do,” said Aldrich. “If our cast size increased, we could do bigger and better shows.”
Joining drama might not only benefit the cast as a whole and make the shows that much more magical, but it could also help improve the dynamic of the club itself.
“I think the biggest takeaway the students get from drama is the community that the students and I have been building,” said Pelkey. “Together we’ve been working to create a safe welcoming space where anyone can contribute to the productions, whether it be on the stage or off. Actors and [the] technical team work together to create the finished product audiences see at performances.”
The buzz of the new shows being decided for drama club hasn’t simmered down yet, and next year, looking forward to these two shows being performed for all will keep it alive.
“My favorite show thus far has been Godspell, but in late fall of this year I am extremely excited to put on Brahm Stoker’s Dracula,” said Aldrich. “We have big plans for the show being very tech-focused, and I’m excited to see what we do with it.”
