Sweet Home High School students will present “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” on stage on at 7:30 p.m.Thursday and Friday, May 28-29, in the SHHS auditorium.
Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for children and students.
“This is the classic story of ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,’ not the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp version,” said Alain Brown, teacher and director. It is set in 1790 and tells the story of teacher Ichabod Crane, an unsettling character who is haunted by the ghost of Hessian, the Headless Horseman.
Brown describes the play as a comedy with scary moments, like when the Headless Horseman arrives.
“One of the reasons I picked this play was mass appeal,” Brown said. Last year’s “Our Miss Brooks” wasn’t as well-attended as he would have liked.
Sophomore Jakob Holden is playing the lead role, Ichabod.
“It’s kind of a big role for me,” he said. “I’m having fun with it. The play, it’s a lot of fun.”
It’s a big role too, with more than 200 lines, he said. That’s probably the most challenging part of it, “making sure I don’t mix lines and have them down.”
On other end of the spectrum, William Stedman has two lines. Mostly he just gets to look scary. He’s the Headless Horseman.
“It’s really fun,” he said. “I get to be big and scary and use my loud voice.”
It’s a little different from his role in his last play, he said. He was a crazy guy with lots of crazy ideas in last year’s series of one-act plays.
Brown would like to pack the house for the 23 student actors performing in this play, he said. To that end, the school’s marketing class has been working on promoting the play.
“One of the things I’m trying to do in this play is get more of the school involved,” Brown said. The home economics class is helping with costumes. The art class and construction class are helping with sets.
They’re all getting real-life experience with these skills, Brown said, and he hopes it stimulates interest in the play itself.
Rehearsals were going well, and the play was in good shape with about two weeks left before the curtain, Brown said.
“The kids, for the most part, have most of the lines memorized,” Brown said.
The classes, cast and crew are working on finishing set pieces.
The cast includes Conner Cunha, Chrissy McLean, Michael Brewer, Sam Whitehead, Whitney Bruce, Cameron Vasseur, Polly Bond, Catrina Stengrim, Bryana Bittner, Ashley Garrett, Emily Delong, Kathy Wilson, Alex Whitlow, Josh Lowe, Jakob Holden, Kyle Lewis, Krystal Juza, Sarah Pickett, Jacob Miner, William Stedman, Michelle Davis, Niki Ailshire and Lacey Bruce.