By Kristi Bezhani
Staff Writer
On March 16th, Senior Julia Boyer presented two plays which she wrote and directed for her Capstone project. She coordinated the plays in a way where the audience could relate the idea of school, from the situations she created in the play.
The first play presented was “IHOP time,” Starring Seniors Anna Roman, Nadif Bracey, Andy Cowell. The was about a boy whose mom was driving him to church, while he wanted to be driven to IHOP instead. The conversations were made up of complaints from the child and demands from the mother, before and after the grandmother added in. This play was originally for the Philadelphia Young Playwrights competition which she wrote in tenth grade, when she was in Mr. Block’s class.
The second play was called “Office 309,” starring Seniors Josh Martin-Corrales, Marina Stuart, Jobe Naff, Natalie Sanchez, Tim Mamorl, Junior Sam Lovett-Perkins, and Freshman Maggie Hohenstein. This play was about a school counselor who was trying to better the lives of students, while coping with his own problems. This play was set in a counclers school office, with one scene taking place in the fathers house of the school counselor. This play was written for her theatre class last year.
Both plays reflected the SLA community, although one more directly than the other. In “IHOP Time,” the mother told her child that, “Church is important, its tradition.” This showed that adults always emphasize the importance of school and it being mandatory. Later, the mother said, “I like the community. it’s really hard to find a church where everyone accepts you for who you are.” This sounded very much like SLA’s environment.
The grandmother character also showed the difference between generations. “When I was your age, they wouldn’t have this advanced technology.” This line, delivered by Andy Cowell dressed up as an old woman, made the audience giggle — and obviously spoke to students at SLA.
Nadif Bracey stole the show as the son, partially because of his funny lines — and also because he was much taller than his “mother.”
“Office 309” changed the mood with a more serious tone. The teacher character is flawed, and can’t help others because he cannot help himself. The audience was very sympathetic to Josh Martin-Corrales in this role, whose character had a stutter around adults, but not with his students. There were a lot of “awwwws” during the scenes with his father.
In the end, Boyer’s hard work and style payed off with a booming applause from the audience.
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