Colton, CA—Cheers echoed throughout the Whitmer Auditorium last week.
On Jan. 31, CHS Drama Club wrapped up its successful two night performance of “Bad Auditions by Bad Actors.” The practice and effort from all the actors was demonstrated on that night as they all did everything possible to put on their best performance for a thrilled audience.
“Bad Auditions,” written by Ian McWethy, is a one-act play about a casting audition for Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” that is packed wall-to-wall with crazy acting types. There’s a performer who brings along an acting coach, one who believes acting involves screaming every line, and even one who believes she is a cat.
Suffice to say, audiences for the play couldn’t stop laughing.
For actor Melissa Walker, the experience was satisfying. “I think this play turned out really well, all of our practicing really paid off,” she said. “There were mishaps here and there but it worked out in the end.”
The mishap she is referring to was that their pace was off and was put into a situation where they were forced to improv a scene at the start of act 2. The scene consisted of the acting director shooing off a cat that came back after their initial audition. The scene felt very natural and kept the audience invested and kept the mistake unnoticeable.
Given the insight, these actors worked hard on this show. By showing how they played their designated roles, the actors gave life to these characters and made them resonate with the audience.
This is most notable in the chemistry between actors Melissa Walker and Mardell Jones. Walker plays the exasperated Casting Director and Jones plays Roger, her lazy assistant. The two play well off each other and it’s not hard to see why they were given roles that are always on stage.
Other notable performances were those by Ja’len Terry—who plays two characters, the excessively passionate Joe, and the delusional Josh, who thinks this is a recreation of the Leonardo DiCaprio version of “Romeo & Juliet”—and Isla Cruz, whose character, Meg, works herself into a temper tantrum.
Ms. Sarah Hantuli, the play’s director was glad to see the students successfully put on the show. “I’m most proud about the dedication of the students and being on top of it,” she said.
“Bad Auditions” is not the last production scheduled for the year. This Friday, Feb. 7 and Tuesday, Feb. 11, Drama Club will hold auditions at the Whitmer Auditorium for a production of “The Seussfication of Romeo & Juliet.” Auditions are after school.