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Pella Christian High School’s Theatre Troupe will be tackling a variety of dramatic styles and technical effects during its 2010-11 season, according to theatre and speech director Marlo Van Peursem. Each of the performances will be held in the Vermeer Auditorium at Pella Christian High School, 300 Eagle Lane.
PCHS’s theatre season opens with Disney’s smash musical hit, High School Musical. On the campus of the East High Wildcats, the Jocks, Brainiacs, and Thespians find their cliques, recount their winter vacations, and look forward to the New Year. A modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, the musical is a story about two students from rival cliques – Troy Bolton, captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella Montez, a shy transfer student who excels in math and science. Together, they try out for the lead parts in their high school musical, and as a result, divide the school while competing against thespian standouts Sharpay and Ryan Evans. Despite other students' attempts to thwart their dreams, Troy and Gabriella resist peer pressure and rivalry, inspiring others along the way not to "stick to the status quo". The performance will be directed by Marlo Van Peursem with assistance from Tim Van Voorst (music) and Brenna Vogel (choreography). Production dates are October 28-30, 2010 with tickets going on sale October 18.
Pella Christian’s Speech Team will perform the powerfully candid drama, EAT (It’s Not About Food), for their Large Group one-act entry with the Iowa High School Speech Association. Dramatizing the dangerous and baffling world of eating disorders, the one-act takes a hard look at young people struggling with this epidemic and too often tragic problem. Beneath a flashing neon sign reading “Eat,” the stage fills with such characters as an overbearing coach, a vain TV actress, and a sympathetic waitress who launches into the story of Amy--whose downward spiraling life and eventual hospitalization is interwoven with scenes of her family, her classmates, and a passionate doctor and their therapy group. District competition begins January 22 with a Home Benefit performance also held during Pella’s annual City-Wide Speech Festival--being hosted this year at Pella Public on January 27, 2011. For the last three years, PC's one acts have been selected as one of only eight schools across the State to perform at the All-State Festival on the campus of Iowa State University. Pella Christian’s annual evening for the Individuals Speech Peer Review will be held February 25, 2011. Assisting Van Peursem with PC’s speech program is Helen Luhrs.
Called the funniest farce ever written, Noises Off, PCHS’s spring comedy, presents a cast of fifth-rate actors rehearsing a flop called Nothing’s On--with doors slamming, mistaken identities, and a million laughs all the while trying to find a missing plate of sardines. The curtain opens on a dress rehearsal of this flop the night before it opens and with things not going well. In the second act the two story set is turned around and we hear this same scene from the backstage, complete with all its offstage antics, after it's been running for a month. The third act flips the set back once more and takes us yet again to this same disastrous scene after two months of touring. It is, deliciously so, a disaster. The comedy will be presented March 25 and 26, 2011 with tickets going on sale March 7.
The Pella Christian High School will close its theatre and speech season in May with a children’s show that the high school drama class produces and takes ‘on tour’ to many of the elementary schools in the area.
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