After learning their fall play was cancelled due to recent events, students from the cast of The Sparrow performed a variety show titled “The Phoenix” last Sunday afternoon in front of more than 500 audience members.
Marcel Graham, technical director, found out about the cancellation of the play on November 2, two days before the fall play was supposed to open.
“Dr. Egan sat with me for well over an hour on Tuesday morning and listened to the concerns that I had for the students and everything, so I know that he spent a lot of time out of a very busy day for him making sure that he had all of the facts prior to going ahead with the decision to cancel [the show],” Graham said. “Ultimately when he decided to cancel [the show], the kids, because they are such a tight knit group who have been together for well over two months rehearsing, needed each other to heal. To literally just say to the kids ‘your show’s cancelled, go home’ wasn’t acceptable to me. So, I did ask Dr. Egan if we could utilize the facility this weekend for a variety type show and he said absolutely.”
With Egan’s permission, Graham and students in the variety show had four days to rehearse and prepare for their performance last Sunday.
“We were told on Tuesday that it was cancelled so we had four days, four days to put a variety show together,” Graham said. “Because I didn’t want to drag it out into next week because it is a closure item for them, Sunday at two seemed to be the best option. It gives them time to prepare which is something they needed.”
The variety show was opened up so any member of The Sparrow cast and crew could perform if they wanted, Graham said.
“We did not open it up to the drama club, per se. We opened it up to any member of The Sparrow staff. So, it doesn’t matter if you were an usher or a costume person or a sound person or a lighting person or whatever, we opened it up to every member of the staff of the show to perform or to run lights or whatever. In order to physically be able to perform, you had to be a member of the show, in one format or another,” Graham said. “There were two costume girls who did an amazing performance. It was actually incredible. It just shows how much talent there is in this department that our costume girls are really blowing the house down with a song.”
Although ticket prices for performances usually go for $10-$12 for students and the general public, admission to the variety show was free of charge. Ultimately, Graham chose for the show to be free due to the fact the show is a healing process for those involved, he said.
“The show itself was a healing process for the kids. I don’t feel that we should try to profit off of a healing process. Obviously we had the donation box out if anyone wants to donate money; that was completely up to them,” Graham said. “The department has already paid for the show, the money of the show and because we have to offset that some way, that’s not the goal of our show. Our goal is to have closure for the parents, and the adults, and the children and everybody involved in the production. Profiting off of it just didn’t seem right.”
All together, the cast of The Sparrow performed 32 acts, including performances of Lady Gaga songs, a reprise of the “Saturday Night Live” cow, and a dance that featured Keely Banach, senior, wearing wires that would periodically hoist her into the air.
The show was a true variety type of show with many types of songs, acts, and skits performed, Graham said.
“We had large group numbers, large dance numbers,[we even had] some flying numbers because we had the flying rig left over from The Sparrow,” Graham said. “And we also had solo vocal numbers and skits and just a whole realm of entertainment, everything but jugglers.”
Renee Howarth, senior and president of Drama Club, said the cast of “The Phoenix” put together a fabulous show on such short notice.
“I thought it went superbly well, it worked as a lot of closure and it just let us heal together, and overall the product we had after four days of rehearsal was astonishing, everyone just worked their butts off,” Howarth said. “I am so proud of the performance we had.”
The performance of the variety show went incredibly well, Graham said, and helped provide closure for the students involved in the play.
“What we are basically saying with [the name of the show] is that it is these students’ rebirth. They lost a lot and this is the drama club’s rebirth into the next era. They have to put the old stuff behind them and move forward and still prove that they’re the high quality drama department that they are. The tag line that we have decided on is ‘rising out of the ashes to entertain you.’ They are literally going all out on that, and that’s the symbol that they are more or less rallying behind,” Graham said. “They are truly, truly doing an amazing job. They’re working very hard. I’ve never been prouder than I am of these guys.”