Every day after school Sherry Lansing Theater has been buzzing with the cast and crew of the fall production going about daily rehearsals. The excitement is tangible as the students have been preparing for the past two months for the first in-person production since fall of 2019.

The fall production, “Words, Words, Words,”  is to take place Oct. 28-31 in the Sherry Lansing Theater at 7:30 p.m. each night.

The play by David Ives consists of four one-act shows. Each act exhibits a different short story with no connection between them.  

Tickets for the production are on-sale for $10 in the high school lobby before, during lunch and after school with limited seating available.

The production was partially chosen due to its unique structure to adhere to COVID-19 safety restrictions.

Junior Ariadne Merchant plays the lead role of Mrs. Trotsky in one of the shows and explained that the production is set up in a way to allow for social distancing.

“There’s a smaller cast for each individual show so we don’t have to worry about a giant cast,” Ariadne said, “because if one person were to get COVID, and we had a giant production, it would be screwed.”

With the last in-person theater performance occurring in Fall 2019, many of the performers have little to no in-person high school theater experience. 

Senior Nicholas Emerton, a performer, said that coming back was different than he expected.

“It was a bit more work than I thought it would be,” he said, “but it’s definitely rewarding to see all these people on stage for the first time.”

Theater teacher Liucija Ambrosmoi said that it’s exciting to have everyone back.

“There was a loss, but there was also a huge gain and when people came back there was a real intensity behind wanting to do great work,” she said. “This year I’m seeing after this drop [in energy] people saying, ‘This is my chance.’” 

Ariadne was optimistic about returning to in-person theater. 

“I think this was a very interesting experience and it’s definitely better than doing it online,” she said.

Safety restrictions have also created new problems for performers and crew members to overcome.

Nicholas explained some of the challenges regarding masks and returning to normalcy. 

“I have to get used to being on stage in front of an audience again, which is going to be hard,” he said. “We have to wear a mask when we perform, which means we have to act a lot more with gestures.”

Students have been preparing for the production for the past two months and have high energy leading up to opening night.

Ms. Ambrosini described the positive energy of the students as they gear up to perform.

“Everything’s been very positive, it’s been great rehearsal and production work,” she said. “Everyone’s very excited for the show.”