The lighter side of school life will be explored in an Odessa High School Theatre Department production of School Daze on Friday.
Theatre Head Director Chyree LeMaster said the production is supported by a grant from the Education Foundation. They weren’t able to stage it last year because of COVID.
Performances will be held all day at the OHS Performing Arts Center with an evening staging at 6:30 p.m. It’s $1 during the day and $5 for the evening and $3 for students.
The art department is putting up panels that have to do with the themes of the show, which will be depicted in a series of scenes.
It covers matters that students face every day at school such as trying to get through the hallways, bullying, the correct way to handle someone who is having a seizure and dress code issues, LeMaster said.
LeMaster said about 20 students from grades nine through 12 are involved.
Over the years, she said, the production has had many titles such as #relatable, Silver Linings Playbook and Peer Issues.
“And each one is just a little bit different because a different group of kids have written it. This one is, I think the funniest of the group. It’s taking the different issues that they face and kind of poking fun at it in a fun way and … then talking about how to deal with those issues in a positive way,” LeMaster said.
Seventeen-year-old senior Katelan Crowder is the director.
Crowder said she set out to make this show different than previous years.
“… I felt like the goal … was to make it more relatable in a sense where it’s not just a focus on deep issues like bullying, because that’s been the focus in the past. So if we were able to make it more about general school issues … then it will be more relatable. In the past, this show in particular has been focused on addressing issues along the lines of mental health. But we (tried) to slow that down because a lot of those issues have been in high increase because of COVID and having to deal with isolation and quarantine. So in order to … connect towards a more sensitive audience than it’s ever been, we tried to limit that and tried to make it more upbeat than something that’s a little more sad,” Crowder said.
She added that it was harder to think more positively because the issues they talked about in the past, like depression, and having to deal with anxiety and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), are all things the theater students have an easier time talking about because they are so connected. In this production, Crowder said, they have stepped out of their comfort zone.
Students have been working on the production since August with breaks for when panels and other items were brought into the theater, LeMaster said.
This being her senior year, the production is extra special for Crowder.
“(LeMaster) really let me take more charge into it, as she wants to give me more experiences and opportunities to … go into the directing world …,” Crowder said.
She added that directing is something she would like to pursue.
“Having these experiences will let me have an outlet to do that,” Crowder said.
She added that she got involved with theater because her mom wanted Crowder to channel her energy into something beneficial.
“It’s helped me a lot in so many ways. Like, when I’m having to read a book for my English class and I have to learn about the characters that I’m reading (about), my experience in theater has been a great assistance towards that because I have to play different characters all the time, to create the world that they live in. And so when I study literature (it) intertwines with that and I feel more connected to the characters and I feel like I get a better understanding,” Crowder said.
Currently, Crowder plans to attend college at California Institution of the Arts.
Fifteen-year-old freshman Josh Brindley and 16-year-old sophomore Allyah Havner are narrators for the production.
Brindley said he was drawn to being part of a production and having a supportive group around him.
Havner said they were talking about a lot of issues that a lot of students have at school.
“… But we wanted to take it to like a funnier part because of the pandemic. We wanted people to laugh and be able to have a good time and it just evolved into something really funny that we put a lot of effort into,” Havner said.
It was easy to write the scenes because they projected all their troubles onto it, but when they tried to make it funny but serious it was a bit more difficult, she said.
“I think it was also the issues that posed the problem of trying to make it funny without demeaning the issues; without demeaning what has gone on through the pandemic. I think that we’ve done a good job (of) tying that together in this show and showing that there are issues that you can joke about …,” Brindley said.
Havner said they end the show with things that happened at OHS that everyone experienced that show that high school isn’t always so humorous.
“High school isn’t always something to joke about, the stuff that happens,” she said.
She said the class got really close by reading about each others issues.
“And everyone was like, well, I wrote about this because of this. And it was kind of like, oh, I know that we can talk about it. And we got really close as the class because of it,” Havner said.
She added that people should come to see the show because so much work went into it and some of the students involved have never been on stage or experienced performing for an audience.
“This is a good thing because we all put our effort into it and now we get to share the effort that we put in for people,” Havner said.
