On Nov. 4th and 5th, the Drama department put on a play called This is a Test, a comedy about the stress of high school academic life. Behind the scenes a lot of effort and planning went into the production, not only from drama but technical theater.
The two main characters, Alan and Mr. Williams, were played by junior Taj Mariano-Perez and senior Matthew Piotrowski.
The play was directed by the San Marin and San Jose Drama teacher, Mariah Fisher. This is Fisher’s first year teaching Drama at San Marin. Drama classes are once a week on Wednesdays after school. Production for the play started in late September, which means they had five weeks to work on it. This took a lot of dedication and hard work from the drama students.
“Our biggest job is to remember our lines,” Mariano-Perez said. “It’s a matter of commitment and teamwork, because to memorize your lines you have to rehearse with other people and if they’re not there it’s really difficult.”
Fellow cast member, Piotrowski, agreed with this.
“It’s kind of hard to put on a play, it involves a lot of people. Especially like Tech, it’s probably the most work,” Piotrowski said.
Technical theater worked very closely on the play. Like Fisher, this was the technical theater teacher Steven Hess’, first production.
“I’m new here. I have a way that I do it but I’m also learning the way that the young people do it here and I’m putting a couple of suggestions where I think they’ll be helpful,” Hess said.
Tech does the behind the scene set up. They overcame a lot of challenges putting on
the production.
“Running Tech means doing the lights, sound, building the sets, running backstage, organizing, coordinating, and maybe sewing the costumes and collecting and building props,” Hess said.
All this hard work from the Drama and Technical Theater class was put on display on Nov. 5th and 6th. There will also be a spring production, which should debut sometime in late March.
“Everyone should come see the shows and support the young people in the program that are working so hard,” Hess said.
