Opening night came as quickly as expected. Holyoke high’s hallway was full of excitement, as actors rushed to get hair and makeup done, while sound and lights crew were running cues. Volunteers made sure reserved tickets were in order, while ushers made sure they knew how to distance seating. Being the first Holyoke High school Theatre company production in two and a half years, and the first ever student written and directed play, it was a special night. The play began, and ended, and the cast, crew and audience got to interact during a question/comments segment at the end of the show. 

     Night two came Friday afternoon. The nerves had settled, and everyone had a good feeling that this show would be phenomenal. The media center would be in attendance to film, as well as various other news outlets visiting. This was the most packed night (as expected). Despite having some technical difficulty with mic’s in the beginning of the show, the cast pulled through and put on the best of the three shows. The audience was engaged, and laughing at all the right moments. Everyone was having fun. The audience was full of classmates and teachers of the cast and crew, and the after school discussion was also phenomenal. Plenty of conversations about the life lessons that Low budget high school play gave, and how a lot of the audience members could relate to the situations. 

     Closing night was finally here, and while everyone was sad that the show would be over, there were feelings of relief, proudness and still that night one excitement and nerves in the air. The cast and crew were surprised with “plate awards” (awards written on paper plates and displayed on the wall), that consisted of plenty of inside jokes. These included “biggest directors suck up” and “most likely to fall asleep during rehearsal”. The seniors of the theatre company were also surprised with brand new SENIOR edition, Holyoke high theatre company apparel. But the festivities couldn’t go on for the entire night, because there was still a show to be performed. Just like it had to start, the show had to come to an end. The cast and crew enjoyed a tearful last question/comments segment, where they offered many sentimental remarks and compliments to each other. We got the chance to connect with writer and director, Alysha Izqueiro, who is also one of our own writers. “Well I actually wasn’t the first student to do it (Write and direct their own play), Brunelle was. But she didn’t do a full length play, she did a short play. Being the first to do a full length play, was a lot.” Izqueiro told us. “ It was different, we had a lot of new people join this year, and obviously some of them didn’t stay through the whole process of rehearsals, so it was difficult on my end to try and get people to fill in those spots. But overall the people that we had, that did commit, did a really great job adjusting and working constantly with new people.” Izquiero has been in the theatre company for most of high school, so we wondered just how much that shaped her experience choosing to go down the path of writing and directing, rather than acting. “Originally I did base the play on the theater company, but then we did have to change some stuff in the play so that we didn’t offend anyone in the school… We did have a few inside jokes, so anybody that went and watched the play that either is from Holyoke or the theater company would understand.” Izqueiro said. “It was unreal, I was very scared. I was afraid because of the old equipment, and I had to put a lot of trust into the people that were performing, so that if anything went wrong that I had trust in them that they would improvise. Which they did very well. It made me happy… I have classes with a lot of those people, and I’m good friends with a lot of them. It wasn’t too hard for me to boss them around. A lot of times we got carried away and talked about things that had nothing to do with the show, but that’s why Brunelle was there, you know, just to help me out a little bit. But because we all knew each other, we all knew when we had to be serious and get stuff done.”

     This show was a very special one, but we don’t believe it will be the only of its kind. And while it’s over, the theater company is still blooming. Auditions for this year’s competition play will take place next week on Thursday and Friday in room 301 directly after school. We will be performing “radium girls’ ‘.