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Students offer unique productions
Published 4:47pm Thursday, November 11, 2010Farmers having a lottery and God as a graduate student will take center stage Friday and Saturday at A Center for the Arts.
Fergus Falls high school students will present two one-act plays for their fall production Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
The first play, “The Lottery,” is a drama by Brainerd Duffield based on a famous short story by Shirley Jackson in which a small farming community is having a lottery — with a twist. The second is called “The Whole Shebang,” is a comedy by Rich Orloff that casts God as a graduate student who is defending her thesis, but the running joke is that she’s not a good student.
The high school presents three plays each year; a fall production, a one-act competition in the winter and a spring production.
“High school kids are fun because they make their own fun out of any situation,” Andrew Millard, English teacher and play director, said. “That’s not to say they’re not serious, but they keep things light-hearted.”
Millard has been involved in at least one play a year, and this is the second time he has directed. He couldn’t decide between a drama and a comedy, so he chose two one-act plays so he could do both.
Senior Vincent Downton said he’s met a lot of his friends while taking part in play productions. One friend he met was junior Robbie Darling. Both are in “The Lottery,” and Darling said he likes being on stage to play the part of a different person, despite the difficulty of memorizing lines and stage fright.
“Your heart beats faster and your adrenaline gets moving when you see all those people out there,” he said.
Although the one-act plays are short, Millard said a big challenge for this production has been putting together two different plays to be performed back-to-back. Nevertheless, he said he enjoys working as director and watching the production come together.
“I like seeing the show develop from the ground up,” he said.
“The Lottery” and “The Whole Shebang” will be performed Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at A Center for the Arts. Tickets are $7 for adults and $4 for children.
The cast members for “The Lottery,” in order of appearance, are Alex Urvard, Baylee Rogelstad, Evan Aanerud, Brad Muckey, Ben Haugmo, Robbie Darling, Kylie Janssen, Katelyn Petersen, Vincent Downton, Eric Vergiels, Olivia Scott, Stephen Goedel and Cassandra Eerdmans. The cast members for “The Whole Shebang” are Ben Haugmo, Brooke Wallington, Baylee Rogelstad, Lexi Wedll, Brad Muckey and Morgen Fylling. Crew members are Vincent Downton, Brooke Wallington, Alex Urvard, Jacob Haugmo, Alex Phillipe, Hayden Dvorak and Nick Weaver.
