York Suburban’s Trojan Theatre Club has put on a lot of great plays throughout the years, but do we, as students, fully comprehend exactly what the Theatre Club experiences in order to put out these plays? There is an immense amount of work put into creating such great plays.
The members in Theatre Club dedicate a lot of their personal time to ensuring that everything runs smoothly. For those who manage the stage and help with set construction, members like juniors Gabrielle Knight and Paige Conway, that time quickly becomes close to 15-20 hours a week. Furthermore, junior Jayme Flom said, “crash week is different than any other week. It can easily eat up to 35 hours… Our director puts in as much as any stage manager, and in addition to that, she has the privilege of taking it home with her.”
The members of Trojan Theatre are determined. And although actors put in less time, which is about ten hours for rehearsals, they have lines to memorize and blocking (the specific positioning/movement of actors on stage) to do outside of practice. Everyone in the Trojan Theatre Club sacrifices significant chunks of time from their own personal lives to ensure that York Suburban experiences another great play.
Though members commit a large amount of time to the Theatre Club, they definitely enjoy their time on stage. When asked about how the cast and crew feel about the plays, Flom said, “We absolutely love them! It is a truly magnificent and rewarding experience to be on stage or backstage…and hear the audience laugh or gasp or comment. We have so much fun backstage watching the actors evolve every night, chuckling at blown lines and having such a sense of pride when we see them execute a line just right.”
It’s obvious that the members genuinely love what they do and enjoy entertaining others. Also, they love the feelings after the last production; Flom said, “…we feel fantastic and nostalgic. We always go out together after the last show as a kind of last hoorah, and it is always so much fun rehashing all the mistakes, ad-libs, and hilarious situations we all experienced.” There definitely seems to be a sense of gratification in finishing a play and knowing you’ve performed well.
What does it take to put together a play? Well, according to Flom, “It takes time, patience, hard work, a wonderful director, and a great set of actors, crews, and managers.” It appears that Trojan Theatre has all those qualities, especially since they’ve created such brilliant plays for York Suburban in the past. Good luck and have fun with the next and last play, Our Town, Trojan Theatre!