Framingham Public Schools
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Acting out By Charlie Breitrose/ Daily News Staff Wednesday, January 11, 2006 FRAMINGHAM -- Before the play begins, even before they can get into costume, Framingham High School drama students had to haul their scenery out of the school bus and set up the stage. Members of the performance workshop class did that three times in the same day last week, as they took their show, "James and the Giant Peach," on the road to three schools around town. The cast members dressed as bugs, clouds and other whimsical characters in the play, based on the Roald Dahl book, delighting students at Dunning Elementary School in their second performance of the day. The high school students arrived about 1 p.m., after a lunch break, and hurried to erect the set of colorfully painted wood panels on a stage in the empty cafeteria. "This set is so big it barely fit on the bus," said sophomore Alyse Lichtenstein, who played the Grasshopper. "The pieces barely fit in the aisle of the bus." "Not all of it did fit," said Caitie O'Connell, a sophomore who narrated the play. "One piece would not fit," O'Connell said. "We had to have the guy who built the set put it in his car." The high-schoolers had only a few minutes to catch their collective breath before the room filled with excited youngsters. The grade-school children watched intently, listening carefully to every word. Performing for such an appreciative audience was a pleasure for the cast, said sophomore Molly Wexler-Romig, who played Aunt Spiker. "We love the kids," said Wexler-Romig, who enjoyed the exercise, but was already a bit tired after the first performance. "It's kind of fun, but we have to move all the things each time," Wexler-Romig said. Following the performance at Dunning, the FHS students headed to Walsh Middle School where they put on a drama workshop for aspiring actors from the three town middle schools and did one more performance of the play. The day started bright and early, said drama teacher Donna Wresinsky, who showed up at 6:30 a.m. for the first show of the day at Wilson Elementary School. Wresinsky held a similar event last year when she took a group of students to perform "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" for an elementary school one afternoon. After receiving requests for more performances, she decided to try to fit them into one day. When Wresinsky became one of the district's co-directors of fine arts, teacher Stephanie Henry took over the class. "This is an awesome experience for the students," Henry said. "Donna's big thing, and I totally agree, is she wants to get art out of the high school and into the community." While they wanted to hit a few schools, Henry said the students could only miss so much classtime. "We did this in one day because we can only take the students out of class once," Henry said. Most of the FHS students are sophomores, Henry said, who have taken the acting I and II classes at FHS. The experience will be valuable for them in their drama career at the high school, Henry said. "They did it three times in one day," Henry said. "It is pretty rigorous." The actors were anxious to get the show going, after waiting for some time to perform the play, said sophomore Robyn Goldman, who played Aunt Sponge. "We practiced this all semester (during the fall) off and on," Goldman said. Originally, the group was supposed to perform in October, Henry said, then it was delayed until December, but snow that day forced them to postpone again. Despite the delay, the elementary school students were excited to see some theater. Before the play began one of the Dunning students asked if there would be other performances of "James and the Giant Peach." "This is it," Henry said. "You and two other schools get to see a special show." |
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