The auditorium quiets from the loud shuffling of props as the cast of this year’s winter play, Leading Ladies, begins rehearsal. Senior Seth Burton, who plays one of the main characters, Leo, flips from his rich bass voice into a comical women’s octave as he shuffles across the stage in his heels. The cast runs through the entire play, trying to muffle the laughter at a sexual innuendo, cleanly switching scenes and tangoing across the stage.
After two rounds of grueling auditions, the cast list was finalized with two names to each part, one of a drama kid’s worst nightmares. Am I an understudy? Are there more auditions? No and no, the show is double cast. For each part, there will be two actors, both will perform and both will rehearse just the same. This is the first time in the drama department’s history that a show has been cast in this style.
“I know it could turn into the Hunger Games of Grand Haven High School drama and we’d have to see what carcass is left to throw on the stage, but that’s the risk,” director Rita McLary said.
Standing in front of 18 attentive actors, McLary explained that she did not want the Hunger Games, she wanted the double cast show to be beneficial to everybody. No one actor or actress was better than the other, but they all needed to work together. If intentions wavered from the show as a whole as to how they could upstage the other person playing their role, it could fall apart.
McLary’s risk paid off. The show, for both casts, has come come together finally and shows begin on Friday. It features two struggling Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, who stumble upon a newspaper ad from a dying woman looking for family members to inherit her three million dollars. The two decide to con their way into the millionaire life but run into a snag when they find out the family members are nieces. This does not stop the plan as they dress in drag and risk it. The play is filled with humor, romance, and trickster moves, much more entertaining than what you would think of for a school play.
Showtimes:
Friday- 7 p.m.
Saturday- 7 p.m.
