2024 Fall Play - "Hunting Season"

The WGHS Theater Department was honored to present the original production of Hunting Season by Parker Collier (class of 2025). Parker began his work on the play with an idea almost a year before and then got to continue work on the script as a part of a COCA playwrighting workshop. The Department is always interested in new works, and allowing space for student writer/directors. This all lined up perfect. We had a new space that needed a show and Parker had a new play that needed a theater.

                                      

The process of playwrighting is rigorous and challenging. 

The best writers make it look effortless... 

The main showcard design for the show 

by James Duckett (Class of '24)

After reading the script, Mr. Schaefer immediately agreed to produce the play. We placed it at the start of the school year to kick off the campus's new theater space. The script was ready for a full stage production and the new theater was a perfect place to house this production. The story was able to be staged minimally and with very little to get the location clear for the viewer. There were also tech challenges for our team to solve, there were moments that Parker wrote that required some inventiveness.   

THE CAST
Luca Thies..........................Donny
Mimi Mueller.....................The Secretary, The Mechanic, The Waitress, The Mom
Carl Ellis............................The Lawyer, The Asst Mechanic, The Step Dad
Robby Conroy....................The Operator, The Pawn Shop Owner, The Man on the Street

                                          

                                                            Alf and Dad "the deer-ghost"

THE STAFF
Mr. Schaefer and the WGHS Theater Dept...........The Producer
Parker Collier.........................................................The Writer, The Director, The Sound Designer
Freya Adkisson......................................................The Stage Manager / Deck Crew Chief
Charlotte Snell.......................................................The Props Manager / Running Crew
Colin Nicholl.........................................................The Lighting Crew / Running Crew
Selby Caldwell......................................................Running Crew
Tony McDermitt....................................................House Management

Daun Pawlicki.......................................................Box Office Asst. / Costumes

Dana Buchanan and Ellie Blanton........................Costumes

Tate........................................................................Photography (set ups)

The Cast and Crew of "Hunting Season"

The cast was hand picked by Parker; Freya Adkisson was brought on as Stage Manager, Charlotte Snell was added in as Props Manager, and the show went into rehearsals when school started back up. Colin Nicholl was brought in for the light hang and focus. He was also going to run the board (though we still didn't have out light board and it was all new to us). Selby was in Tech Theater and was brough it to help with the running crew. Colin was eventually moved to assist the running crew, and Mr. Schaefer ran the Light Board. Parker scored the whole show, so of course he ran the sound board. We did not use any projections or mics.    

                                                          

Charlotte and Freya in the house working on the logistics of the show. There were quite a few props, scene changes, and set pieces that had to be tracked in this play.

THE NEW FRICK THEATER 

A MULTI-PURPOSE PERFORMANCE SPACE

                                                                

We were finally let into the brand new theater on our campus the first week of school. It is a beautiful space. We are so thankful that Barbara and Bob Frick thought of us and wanted to give back to the Fine Arts at WGHS. The district helped match the funds and the end result will benefit many of the art makers on campus and hopefully in the community as well.  This new space is built on the sight of our old Little Theater, which was a treasured facility on campus for almost a century, but had to be taken down due to the extensive water damage that occurred over the last several decades. 

                                    

                    The sign in the lobby of the new theater honoring the donor's efforts

Technically, everything was learning curve in this space. We had been working with tech from the 1980's (and earlier) in all of our theater spaces on campus. It had served us well, but as everybody tries to move their spaces into being more "green" we got a long over due update to LED and DMX lighting. This will be a wonderful way to bring back stage lighting to the student learning objectives and to allow the designers to play on systems similar to what is being used in the theater industry today.  

A quick drawn map of the lighting grid and how we wanted to start patching it 

into our new light board to control color for each acting area

The space had all new tech and we had to bring in a lot of additional equipment to do theater. Right off the bat we had to acquire a light board and all of the cabling to run lights for the show. The theater didn't come with a lightboard. Once we got all of the parts in place we were able to patch and program the light board. The colors we were able to achieve in this space were beautiful.   

REHEARSALS

The cast rehearsed anywhere they could. Parker blocked and staged the scenes one by one and the cast immediately started memorizing. This was a comedy and the cast had a ball staging the show. There was a lot of laughter in rehearsals and everyone got along really well as they worked through all of the hurdles of putting together an original work.  The Frick was made available when possible, but the space had just opened and the show was competing with many groups that wanted to use it as well. 

                               

Luca and Mimi rehearsing the diner scene. 

"Alf" was a very unique element of this story.

Parker had purchased the deer head(s) very early in the process to allow Luca to play in rehearsals with the prop. It was very important that Luca got comfortable with "Alf" in order to sell the relationship Donny has with Alf to an audience. Luca spent many mornings before show week in the theater working on his own, memorizing and polishing his blocking.

  

                        Parker directing a fight scene with Luca and Robby 

This was a very funny moment in the play, the Pawn Shop owner got a lot of laughs!

                                   

                                  Robby has a question about the fight scene in the pawn shop

The supporting cast all played multiple roles and each had several scenes to tackled. This show seemed simple on the page, but had a lot of moving parts (literally!) The main character's journey has him meeting many people along the way.

            

        All of the characters that Donny (Luca Thies) encountered had to be unique and interesting

        

        Colin and Freya completing the list of all of scene breaks for lighting...

        and there were a lot of them. We ended up with over 50 light light cues.

     

          Each scene had a different set-up and we rarely used the same piece of furniture twice.

    

We had to take the audience to many locations and the changes between the locations had to move very quickly or the story would lose its momentum. We had many things on wheels. Several of the furniture pieces had felt on the legs to help them slide and to protect the floors. Most scenes used all four stage crew members.

Many lists had to be made to keep all of the transitions clean...

LOCK IN!

    

Lighting helped to bring the scenes into very specific areas of the stage that the crew had to fit all of the pieces into; we utilized three areas across the stage for the separate moments and some used two areas.

      

All of the furniture had to be loaded into Mr Schaefer's truck from the department stock and loaded into the Frick for this show. We were very lucky to have most of what we needed in stock. Then it all got returned to the department after we closed.

Once the Tech was figured out, the set pieces and props were brought into the theater from the department stock on the other side of the building. 

  

The prop tables were placed behind temporary walls and each prop was labelled on both sides of the stage. We also had set pieces and props along the Stage left wall that had to move in and out the scenes. Most of the props came from our department's stock. We also had many items that had to be made, found online/purchased or borrowed.  Sometimes they were borrowed from someone's house, place of work, or even Luca's minivan.

   

 PR MARKETING

The designs were completed by James Duckett who graduated in '24. He provided us with designs that we printed but also put in the announcements and on the hall way monitors. We only seat 132 each night and the goal was to sell as many seats as possible. 

                           

           There were some drawings made on the Black Box Chalk board that got the ball rolling...

The second Poster design by James Duckett

We started to market the show through the ECHO and ran an insert that came out the night we opened. This gave us an extra last minute push to get students to buy a ticket and come out to the show.

             

              The ECHO FLYER                                                    The T-Shirt Design

                                                       THE TRAILOR     

                                                             Created by Parker Collier 

         

It is nice to have a teaser made to promote a play's opening weekend. 

We can use them on the morning announcements, and it's another opportunity to encourage the student body to buy a ticket and come out to see the show

THE SHOW 

The show was a huge success; selling over 250 tickets in the three nights. The Frick Theater turned out to be a perfect fit for the story we needed to tell. We were so very fortunate to have such a supportive and appreciative audience in the house each night. It was fantastic attendance for a new work.

SOUND

Parker built the whole score at home using his keyboard and a computer. The scenes were accented with music and sound effects. Scene changes were all scored to give the piece a real cinematic feel.

           

Parker at the laptop in the booth we set up house left.

             

Parker gave a curtain speech each night before the show

This was a very unique night of theater. The audience laughed, they cried and everyone left saying such nice things about the show, the cast, the tech, and of course Parker's script.

(Photo Credit for the following go to Tate Harcourt, Freya Adkisson and the show video screenshots)

The Deer Man

Robby Conroy is an actor who is willing to try anything in a rehearsal in order to make the scene the best it can be. His characters are always intriguing and interesting to watch. He had several costume changes that made for some fast backstage antics. Of course had also got to play the man with the deer head, and wearing a full head mask offers it's own challenges.

The play incorporated a wonderful array of symbolic imagery throughout Donny's journey for the audience to piece together like a puzzle and this one in particular really carried metaphoric weight.

              

                           It all begins in the Lawyer's office and the reading of the will

                    

                            Marvin (played by Carl Ellis)                       The deer head must go!

Carl Ellis has played several parts for us over the last several years but this play in particular allowed him to really stretch his range as a comedic actor. The rehearsals made space for some fun and yet challenging character exploration. Each scene in the story needed to push the plot forward, but also give Donny additional struggle as he tries to get his objectives. This type of comical multiple-characterization role was perfect for Carl, the freedom to to create. He showed that when you are given the opportunity to originate a role...hold on tight and have fun.

 

  

Donny is a bit confused about the deer head...why did his dad leave him a deer head? 

      

              The car scenes were very important to the relationship between and Alf and Donny

                   The car was a platform with castors and two seats out of Luca's minivan. 

The seatbelt made the picture complete.

      

Alf was a special part of the story and the audience fell in love with him right along with Donny

Luca Thies took on quite a challenge when he accepted the role of Donny in this production. The part required the actor to connect with an imaginary thing in a way not many actors can pull off with such honesty and heart. 

                                       

Donny ran into many people during his journey. Robby Conroy plays the Telephone Operator that gets Donny a rough idea of where he might find his mother. Robby has been acting in the department on stage and also with the Film Club making short movies. He is a true character actor, using his body like a rubber band, and knows how to land a funny line.    

                    

               Definitely one of the best surprises in the play! The audience never sees it coming...

                 

Freya Adkisson and Charlotte Snell really worked the car unit to get the crash to be a visual treat for the audience each night. The car would go in full circles while the sound effect (engineered by Parker) blasted us with a perfect cinematic moment of terror before the car ended up down stage right. 

The Frick Theater provided a really wide stage for Parker to create wonderful letterbox moments like we were watching a film. The score and sound effects added to the picture and transported us to whatever location he needed. This moment used two practical lights hung off stage right.

Colin Nicholl operated the fixture to look like car headlights.

The bizarre and surrealistic elements of the play allowed Donny to go into moments that the audience questioned as being real or just a dream...or a desert induced hallucination. Luca let Donny live in these moments with a real sense of authenticity. 

                                          

Once he crashes his car and has to go to the mechanic we get introduced to two very funny characters, goofy accents and wacky energy. The hero myth is strong with this play, and nothing goes easy for Donny. This scene got big laughs every night! 

Oh...and then we go the pawn shop.

When he has to go to the pawn shop to get Alf back, things don't exactly go as planned...

Luca and Robby's chemistry in this scene was perfect; the whole scene was ridiculous fun.

Parker did a great job with the fight choreography and staging in this play. 

The actors had a lot of fun playing these moments and they always caught the audience off guard, bringing a certain kind of electricity to the story.

Robby Conroy was a trooper, that deer mask was not easy to see in while wearing it on stage.

He had to be escorted onto the stage several times a night.

Donny arrives at a diner after walking through the desert.

The waitress is the exact person he needed to meet.

The audience really got into the quirky relationship between Donny and Alf. It isn't an easy trip for Donny. Luca Thies worked very hard in rehearsal in order to give the character real depth; each night the performances of the whole cast helped the play achieve the cathartic ending that we all read in the pages of the script.

 

   

                                                     A waitress with a heart of gold...

Mimi Mueller gave each of her characters a real sense of wonder and compassion. The waitress in the diner was someone Donny needed to meet, right at that time, in this part of his journey...or he may not have had the motivation to pull the whole thing off in the end. Mimi joined that cast without having done much theater of this sort. She had worked with us the previous year as a member of the cast in our Winter Musical. This was a wonderful playground of learning and this experiment gave her the space to witness the play process and model the others who had done this work before. Her characters were engaging, funny, and interesting.

    

Thank goodness there was a booster chair for Alf near by...

   

                      I'll have the Salad...What do want Alf?

The final scene was a wonderful conclusion to the adventure and the script doesn't disappoint. Donny finally finds the answers to all of his questions...for the most part.

            

The cast really brought the suspense to the last scene, 

and the gun getting pulled out definitely raised the stakes!

          

  The Costumes for each character in the show helped the actors bring something different to each scene. This was a great opportunity for these actors to broaden their ranges.

"This is for your own good Donald!"

BAM!!!

               

           

Carl Ellis is always game for classic physical humor. The last scene has him climbing under chairs. Onstage Carl is a true throw-back to the actors in the very first sitcoms. He plays broad comedy like a pro and his characters are always funny because they carry a certain realness and truth; they have a warmth even when they are at their weirdest and quirkiest. 

This play had plenty of funny props for the actors to play with...

both sides of the stage were loaded with props.

Each night they had to be cleaned, arranged and prepared.

...and someone had to go to McDonalds to get a cheeseburger and fries.

 

                                 

                                

Parker wrote a very exciting and fulfilling ending to the story that the audiences absolutely loved. The script was master class in plotting a story and Parker gave each actor an opportunity to carry scenes and drive the plot forward.  

             

                                                                      

        

The lighting in the Frick Theater offered some really saturated colors, and that gave us an opportunity to really shock the audience a few times. The whole stage going red for the gun shots was exciting theater. Almost felt like a moment in a looney tunes cartoon for a moment. 

                  

                       Mimi gave the mom a heart, but she was completely off her rocker.

Alf really became something special for the audience, by the end we didn't want to say goodbye.

                            The voice over for the Dad was actually performed by Parker's Dad.

The final moment of the play.

AFTER THE SHOW...

                 

    

THE CAST PARTY

It has become a department tradition to bring all of the people who worked on the show into the same room once the show has closed to honor their work and the show's success. There are things given out to the cast and crew from the directors, we sign the MVT trophy and we pass the pig. 

The parents provided us with delicious food and then we celebrated in the lobby of the Frick. 

                          Luca was given the Pig from Casey and Parker signed the MVT trophy.

The STRIKE CREW! (someone was cut off next to Parker...who was that?)

 

ALF SAYS, "GO SEE A PLAY!!!"