For their last play of the year, and for some their final play at MHS, Play Pro is preparing to present “The Odd Couple” on the 20th and 21st of May for 10 dollars a ticket, with tickets on sale during lunch. The play has been in the works since their winter play. The twist this time is that on the 20th, the cast will be all boys, while there is an all girls cast for Saturday night. The posters reflect this by calling Friday “for the boys” and dubbing Saturday as “girls night”.
The teacher and director of Play Production, Leanne DeRosa, mentioned that she chose The Odd Couple because “…it is a well-loved classic. I also thought we had some folks in class who could really dig into these roles well. It was a tough choice. I had a hard time choosing the spring play but Mr. Cole encouraged me to do The Odd Couple because he is, and has been, a big fan of the show.” Currently, DeRosa is directing the girl cast while Mena Alayan is directing the male cast.
Senior and stage manager Minh Thu Do expressed that she felt “bittersweet and angry, as her time in Play Pro was cut short because of COVID, so the learning process of being a stage manager could have been much more extensive if it wasn’t for COVID. So [she was] kind of bitter about that. However she appreciates this great ending as a senior…”. Minh is trying to be a dependable student to her peers and be someone her friends can rely on. She is happy that the show will come out great and be something that people love. However, she is not excited for the cleanup that will fall upon the crew.
Another senior actor, Imani Ligon-Chambers, agreed with Minh that the play felt bittersweet to perform in. “I’m glad this is the last show of the year, and I’m glad that it’s something that’s going to be funny for the audience, but it’s also kind of sad that it’s the end of everything, and that there is a next chapter coming, and I won’t be able to do it with this particular community ever again.” Imani reflected on her casting, mentioning that she “wanted to try out for Olive because Olive is the messy person between the two.” Ligon-Chambers added “And I’m definitely a messy person when it comes to anything about my life. But I ended up getting Sylvie…I actually am happy with what I got.” She continued by saying that Olive is a fast person who needs to get stuff done and she can somewhat relate with that, and in hindsight she would not change her casting at all.
Matthew Goroshko, a sophomore, wanted to try and get the main role, Oscar, but ended up getting Roy. However he, along with Imani, agreed that he wouldn’t change his casting. “I think that Roy was definitely more of a suitable character for me. I just didn’t know Roy existed, because I was just focused on the main character. I mean, Roy is still a pretty cool character.” Matt closed by saying “I really recommend anybody who wants to join Play Pro, please do, we need you. We need people, and it’s just it’s a really safe spot to learn about the theatrical arts.
Brian Vences, another sophomore, attempted to get Oscar as well, but ended up getting Murray. Again, like his peers, he didn’t want to change anything about his casting. “I think all the roles that were chosen fit everybody very well. Especially the roles of Felix and Vinny. I feel like the people that were casted for those fit very well into those roles.” He continued on to say that “If you want to join Play Pro, do not be afraid to join. Everyone has their strengths and everyone has their weaknesses. If you don’t want to be an actor, if you can’t sing, then you don’t have to do a musical. We have plays where you don’t do any singing. If you’re not an actor, but you like to build stuff. You can be a crew person. If you’d like to write, we do fests where we write our own play. So you can be in the process of writing a play. If you’d like to do marketing we have marketing teams to promote our shows, and all that kind of stuff. There’s a thing for everybody.
Play Production would like to encourage everyone to get out there and support their upcoming play. Ms DeRosa said that “What I’ve learned most is…We’ll never do two full-length shows in a spring again! Haha!”
