Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home High School students will take one of the earliest TV sitcoms and adapt it to the stage with a production of “Our Miss Brooks” on May 8 and May 9 in the high school auditorium.
The program started on radio in 1948 and transitioned to TV in 1952, largely with the same cast, and ran for four seasons.
The story centers on Miss Brooks, a freshman English teacher, who is given the job of directing a school play, SHHS drama teacher Alain Brown said. “She’s trying to prepare in the gym at the same time as the basketball team (is practicing).”
She has a love interest, basketball coach and teacher Hugo Longacre and she must deal with a snobbish school board member and her prissy daughter.
These are the sources of conflict in the story, setting the stage for a night of comedy, Brown said. The play runs in three acts and will be approximately two hours long.
The actors will begin rehearsing the entire play this week, he said.
A core of student actors participated in six one-act plays presented earlier this year, Brown said. They include senior Mary Bond, juniors Cameron Vasseur and Kathy Wilson, sophomores Bryana Bittner and Polly Bond and freshman Jakob Holden. Bond is portraying Miss Brooks. Vasseur portrays Hugo Longacre.
Tristan Terry, a junior, is assistant director.
He also acted in the one-act plays and is interested in the technical part of theater, Brown said.
Also in the cast are junior Katie Kinney; sophomores Whitney Bruce, Catrina Stengrim, Christina McLean and Connor Cunha; and freshmen Taylor Rodgers, Ashley Garrett, Emily Delong, Cheryl Wilson and Kyle Lewis.
Conner Cuillo and Vasseur are serving as stage crew, and Bittner is stage manager.
“I think it’s a really good play,” Bittner said. It has a lot of subtle humor underlying the story.
It has the whole mix of stereotype groups in high school, Terry said.
“We are actually doing pretty well,” Terry said. Most of the cast are freshmen, and “they’re doing very well.”
The toughest part so far has been “getting everybody together,” Terry said, along with getting props and materials together, Bittner added.
“Everyone come and see,” Terry said. “Because we’ve been working our butts off. Honestly, I think we’re going to do fantastic.”
The play starts at 7:30 p.m. both nights. Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for students and children.
For more information, call the high school at 367-7142.