Students will take on a romantic play
Love is in the air as Spring Woods High School theater arts students perform John Cariani’s popular play “Almost, Maine” Nov. 19-21 and 23.
The nine romantic vignettes, stitched beneath a field of stars over a small, mythical town in northern Maine, is one of the most produced shows in the past five years, said director Terry Hibbert-Ismert.
“John Cariani is an amazing author. He is contemporary, of his time, which is now,” she added. “He is a master of reversal. Just when you think a scene is going one way, it goes another. It is charming, charming, charming.”
“If you want to learn about love, come see this show,” said Darius Dentley, 18, a senior who plays Dave.
“He is a shy guy who wants his best friend to be his girlfriend,” said the son of Moses and Melinda Dentley of Spring Branch.
However, in Cariani’s unique universe, the object of Dave’s affection, Rhonda, doesn’t have a clue that Dave is interested in her romantically.
“I won arm wrestling at every Winter Carnival from fifth grade on and I work in plywood at Bushey’s Lumber Mill, and that’s not what most men wanna . . . want,” says Rhonda, who is played by LaSean Roy. In the prologue, Ginette, Ceci Cuellar, wants to tell Pete, Marvin Villalobos, that she loves him, but just as she begins to say, “Pete, I -- …,” the stage directions read, “She can’t quite do it.”
Another segment has Annabelle Bellow as Hope returning to her hometown to try to rekindle a romance with the high school sweetheart she dumped, only to find that he has “changed.”
“You’ll be surprised by how magical and heartbreaking and funny this scene is when the physical manifestation of the man’s loss is crystal clear,” writes Cariani in his author’s notes.
Bellow, 17, is a senior who serves as president of International Thespian Society Troupe 127 at Spring Woods.
The daughter of Thomas and Dana Bellow of Spring Branch said many of the cast members of “Almost, Maine” are also preparing for the Texas Thespian Festival to be held Dec. 2-5 in Dallas.
“There will be workshops to improve dance, vocal and acting skills, Main Stage productions and other performances, and college auditions for scholarships,” said Bellow.
In addition, performance and technical competitions will advance some students to the 2016 International Thespian Society’s national festival next summer in Lincoln, Nebraska.
After flopping off Broadway, “Almost, Maine” was performed at the 2009 Thespian festival, where it was such a hit that it became the next year’s most-produced play in North American high schools, said Hibbert-Ismert.
The play bumped William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from the No. 1 spot in Dramatics, a magazine that has compiled the annual ranking of most popular high school plays and musicals since 1938, she explained.
The Spring Woods production has been aided by the insights of Hibbert-Ismert’s new associate director, Chrissie Cutler, who hails from New Hampshire, which is “almost” Maine.
“She has the free spirit the characters have and the world-view of people who live out there on the edge, where maybe 500 people live and they all know each other,” said HibbertIsmert.