rantonian
U. S. Grant High School, Portland, Ore
Shakespeare classes present
Production’s cast chosen
“All’s Well That Ends Well,”
by William Shakespeare, is a
“very strange play, in that it
does not end. During almost the
last speech, the whole thing
starts over, and the play leaves
you up in the air wondering,”
declared Gerald Merryman,
Shakespeare departament head.
A tentative cast has been
selected by Mr. Merryman
and a panel of eight students
for the production, which
will be presented February
6-7 in assemblies and the
evenings of February 7-8.
Members of the cast include:
Phil Westover, King of France;
Steve Tubbs, Bertram; Randy
Lamont, Lafeu; Brian Davis,
Parolles; Mark Kalil, Lauache
(a clown); Regan Crowley,
Countess of Pousillon, Bonny
The “High-Q” team is visiting
the tiny eastern Oregon town of
Athena as “sort of a ‘big broth­
er’ gesture,” according to Gerald
Merryman, “High-Q” team ad­
visor.
Larry Wheeler, acting team
captain; Margaret Fraser; Evan
Whipple; and Steve Reinisch are
taking part in the visit.
This is the first time
that
Mower, Helena; Bea Johnson,
Widow, and Violeta Petrevics,
Diana. .
Also in the cast are: Ken
Ball, Duke of Florence;
Bruce Fishback, steward;
Bruce Johnson, Cam Rossi­
ter, Ray Ruminsky, and Bob
Ecoff as four French Lords;
Harriet Hauser, Mariana;
and Sondra Twedt, Violenta.
Concluding the list are: David
Powell and Jim Ream as two
Italian soldiers, and Kim Cassi­
dy, Tim Hicks, and Jim Mills as
three gentlemen.
The play’s theme deals
with a young man, Bertram,
being forced by the King to
do something that he doesn’t
want to do—to marry Hele­
na; and the first plot tells
Athena high school has been
asked to appear on the “High-Q”
show. Since they know about
our school and see us as one of
the largest schools in Oregon,
they have asked our team to
visit and give them hints and
advice about the program.
Friday a demonstration match
will be given in an assembly
program.
how he is tricked into want­
ing to do it.
Helena, who is one of Shake­
speare’s wisest women charac­
ters—dominates the whole play,
and it is through her sophisticat­
ed wisdom that Bertram is
brought about to want to be her
husband. An interesting type of
trick—the “substitute bed trick”
—is used for Bertram’s persua­
sion.
The second plot represented
in this play involves the
exposing of Parolles, who is
a cowardly braggart. He fi­
nally comes to self-knowl­
edge, accepting himself as a
coward, and lives well with
this knowledge.
“All’s Well That Ends Well”
is relatively infrequently per­
formed, in comparison with
Shakespeare’s other plays,” com­
mented Mr. Merryman. “The
company from which we usually
get our plays doesn’t even make
copies of this play.”
Mr. Merryman had to cut and
type 90 page texts they are us­
ing, then ditto 30 off. Sixteen
boys and six girls are in the cast,
and the remainder of the 51
Shakespeare students will be do­
ing committee work.
“Our main problem,” Mr.
Merryman concluded, “is that
we have such a short time to
work on the production. We will
have only five weeks after
Christmas, instead of the usual
six or seven.”