Every fall and spring, Drama Club performs a new play, chosen by the students in the club. On November 13-15, the Drama Club will be performing “Beauty and the Beast.” “Each show is unique, but with this one we have perhaps accomplished more of the production work and planning before even casting the play,” said Director Maria Wishart.
With each performance, comes a lot of money, hard work and dedication. Many times actors will have to thrift shop, and use hand-me-downs to save money on props and costumes. The total estimate cost for this play is around $3,000. Rights, royalties and material rentals cost $1,500 dollars on their own. Drama Club on average saves around $3,000 simply by working hard to reuse costumes, props and other needed materials from previous performances.
“We pick through all the costumes we have in storage to see what will work, we scrounge from other theaters, from Goodwill, and sometimes we rent pieces if we can find them at a reasonable rate. To rent everything for this show, it would cost $6000. Obviously, we will not be doing that,” said Wishart
Students practice for six weeks, at first they will start out practicing three or four times a week. As time progresses, they will work up to practicing every day. Generally, the harder everyone works, the less stressful it is.
“There is the sense of accomplishment and the satisfaction of doing a good job. Many lessons learned apply to many areas of life now and in the future,” said Wishart “The real magic is in delighting an audience and in the relationships you build and develop with the cast and crew. Those things are enhanced when there has been hard work — you can throw yourself into the show without being scared you will mess up, your audience will become completely engaged in the story, and there will be a lot more harmony among the cast and crew,”
Being cast as one of the major roles in a play can be very exciting, but also takes a lot of work and flexibility. Sometimes students will have to work around schedules to make time for memorizing lines and going to rehearsal.
“I have Polar Express, dance and voice, so I’ll definitely have to check my schedules with them and maybe change some lesson times. As far as memorizing lines goes, I always use whatever time I can get, whether that means at school or in the mornings,” said sophomore Angel Pierce, cast as Belle, the female lead.
Not only do large rolls take hard work and flexibility, they also take a lot of effort and dedication.
“I will have to put a lot more effort into this show. It is not going to be easy and I am going to have to stay dedicated, and work hard to be as good as I can,” said senior Bailey Rankin, cast as the Beast, the male lead.
Drama Club is less of a club, and more of a family.
“Hours and hours of laborious rehearsals come down to two hours on stage, where we are before an audience that will appreciate it and hopefully take home a little lesson of their own. Being able to entertain and make people feel true human emotions is always worth the effort. It teaches us life lessons, and we all truly connect to each other like a family,” said Pierce.

Story by: Brooklyn Pitman

Photo by: Darrain Breedlove