Dancing Through December in Drama-tic Fashion
Advanced drama students bring two exciting shows to Pioneer to start off the winter season.
By Saya Fujii
Advanced drama students bring two exciting shows to Pioneer to start off the winter season.
By Saya Fujii
Starting off the last month of 2022, students performed two different shows for the Winter Play, finishing off the first semester.
On Dec 1, 2 and 3, select students from the advanced drama class performed “Arsenic and Old Lace,” a movie from the 1940s. The other play, performed by the entire advanced drama class was the Lin-Manuel Miranda tribute show, featuring songs from many of his musical projects.
Leading up to the first performance of the Miranda tribute play, Gabi D’angelo, 12, felt ready and excited to perform the song, “Benny’s Dispatch,” after all of the hard work the class put into their rehearsals.
“(I want to) show people what we have been working on for the last couple of weeks, especially because it was all done by the students in the class,” said D’angelo.
A common favorite of the tribute show was a scene in “What’d I Miss?” where characters on stage fangirled over Thomas Jefferson, played by Thomas Jordan, 12.
“It was really funny how crazy everyone went, and everyone did something different so it was complete organized chaos,” said Leyla Bikul, 10.
Sofia Chichizola, 11, loved a turning point in their on-stage adaptation of “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
“My favorite moment is when Mortimer finds out that we were the ones responsible for Mr. Hoskins, I just think it is so funny and I love playing the part of an aloof old lady,” said Chichizola.
After the show, both Bikul and Ally Hoang, 11, said that they wanted to give a shout-out to the choreographers. Hoang appreciated the work they put into the show, and Bikul acknowledged their effort on casting and directing as well. The choreographers who worked on the Miranda tribute are juniors Natalie Burrill and Luke Jennings and seniors Loren Joy Losorata and D’angelo.
“Y'all did such an amazing job and I genuinely had a really good time working on it with you,” said Bikul.
Chichizola felt that the energy of the actors was a high point that went very well.
“We worked our butts off for months practicing and I was a little nervous because we were all exhausted but the minute the lights went up, all of us came to life,” said Chichizola.
On Dec 1, 2 and 3, select students from the advanced drama class performed “Arsenic and Old Lace,” a movie from the 1940s. The other play, performed by the entire advanced drama class was the Lin-Manuel Miranda tribute show, featuring songs from many of his musical projects.
Leading up to the first performance of the Miranda tribute play, Gabi D’angelo, 12, felt ready and excited to perform the song, “Benny’s Dispatch,” after all of the hard work the class put into their rehearsals.
“(I want to) show people what we have been working on for the last couple of weeks, especially because it was all done by the students in the class,” said D’angelo.
A common favorite of the tribute show was a scene in “What’d I Miss?” where characters on stage fangirled over Thomas Jefferson, played by Thomas Jordan, 12.
“It was really funny how crazy everyone went, and everyone did something different so it was complete organized chaos,” said Leyla Bikul, 10.
Sofia Chichizola, 11, loved a turning point in their on-stage adaptation of “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
“My favorite moment is when Mortimer finds out that we were the ones responsible for Mr. Hoskins, I just think it is so funny and I love playing the part of an aloof old lady,” said Chichizola.
After the show, both Bikul and Ally Hoang, 11, said that they wanted to give a shout-out to the choreographers. Hoang appreciated the work they put into the show, and Bikul acknowledged their effort on casting and directing as well. The choreographers who worked on the Miranda tribute are juniors Natalie Burrill and Luke Jennings and seniors Loren Joy Losorata and D’angelo.
“Y'all did such an amazing job and I genuinely had a really good time working on it with you,” said Bikul.
Chichizola felt that the energy of the actors was a high point that went very well.
“We worked our butts off for months practicing and I was a little nervous because we were all exhausted but the minute the lights went up, all of us came to life,” said Chichizola.