The Play Production students at Malden High School (MHS) work hard each year to produce well-scripted and directed plays, with the help of class instructor Leanne DeRosa and MHS staff member Kayla Morello. However, “Can You See Me?” was a play created solely by the students themselves.
The student-run event was held during the Joy Flex Block, free of charge, and open to all students on March 21st.
The Play Production students originally brainstormed the topic of love, an idea students could relate to in many ways. The idea of “Can You See Me?” was introduced by senior member Yasmine Alayan, who worked on the concept, including the ghosts and graveyard setting.
The play is set in a graveyard, constructed together by Morello, and begins with the main character Daffy Robinson, played by Alayan, cleaning graves. The play continues when she meets ghosts who help her overcome her social fears and herself.
The play was titled “Can You See Me?” after the line that had been repeated in the play itself. Not only was the play an astounding accomplishment for the hardworking students but a subject that all of the MHS student body could connect to.
“We get in our own way sometimes… we let ourselves… our thoughts distract us from the potential that we have.”
– Yasmine Alayan
Throughout the play, Daffy Robinson met different ghosts which helped her experience strong personalities different from her own. Alayan said, “Daffy took them as weird… but they just understood being who you are is normal when everyone is doing it.”
She added that “Daffy gets in her own way and by then it does not matter, to go to the party, to not go to the party, it was just more important that she finally saw herself.”
All photos by Juliana Luong.
