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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2016)
THEATER CLUB Election: Timely theme for young actors By Katherine Lacaze Seaside Signal For its annual fall play, Seaside High School’s drama program will be undertaking a critically relevant and time- ly satire that explores one of America’s most revered po- litical processes, “The Elec- tion.” Director Lenore Morris- son said she chose “The Elec- tion,” written by Dan Zolidis, because of its comedic take on the contemporary politi- cal scene and relevance to the upcoming 2016 presidential election, scheduled for Tues- day, Nov. 8. “All elections are sort of the same, right?” Morrisson said. “They say they’re go- ing to run a clean campaign, and pretty soon someone’s SUBMITTED PHOTO “The Bold, The Young and The Murdered,” the 2015 fall play, featured the theatrical talents of numerous Seaside High School students. Auditions for this year’s fall play, “The Elec- tion,” will be held in mid-September. running an ad, saying, ‘he’s a puppy killer.’ It’s just kind of ridiculous.” At the start of “The Elec- tion,” a disgraced student body president resigns. Stu- dent Mark Davenport, look- ing to beef up his resume for college applications, decides to run for president in a spe- cial election. He expects an easy victory against his nerdy opponent, Christy Martin, whose platform is to elimi- nate football, according to a summary on the Playscripts website. However, when Christy gets backed by a Su- per PAC with an unlimited budget, Mark realizes the race is on. To resist defeat, he must accept “the services of a slick professional cam- paign manager with ques- tionable ethics and a mil- lion-dollar Super PAC of his own,” the summary states. Several of the play’s themes are applicable to the real world of politics at ev- ery level of government. Reading through the script, Morrisson said she found the play to be fast-moving and “just ridic- ulous.” “I was chuckling,” she said, adding the plot “gets as crazy” as the current presidential race between Democratic nominee Hil- lary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump. She also hopes the play will compel students to be- come more aware of the campaign and election pro- cesses and the importance of being critically thinking and engaged members of the public who take interest in current affairs. “I think the kids are go- ing to have fun with it,” she said. The play features ive main characters and numer- ous incidental characters, al- lowing Morrisson lexibility with her casting decisions. She can use a big ensemble if many students show up to auditions or cast each actor for multiple smaller parts. “Our unknown this year is how many young men we’re going to have in our fall play, because we gradu- ated a lot of our kids,” she said. “The good thing about this play is we only have to have two males, the rest we can change the gender.” Because multiple reliable theater participants were graduating seniors last year, “the theater program is to- tally rebuilding this year,” Morrisson said. One option to address the loss of several of the school’s staple male actors was to choose a play containing all female char- acters, but Morrisson wor- ried about “discouraging the guys from going out” for roles. 16 20 go GO GULLS! gulls Proud Seaside High School Boosters! ENJOY OUR CLASSIC & SPECIALTY COFFEE DRINKS, SMOOTHIES AND ICED TEA TO-GO BOX FOR JUST ABOUT ANY GATHERING WHOLE BEANS BY THE POUND BREAKFAST SANDWICHES, MUFFINS OR BISCOTTI 200 N Prom, Seaside 503.738.6211 www.seasideaquarium.com 17 20 1545 N. ROOSEVELT DR. • Seaside • 503.738.5405 1526 SE DISCOVERY LN. • Warrenton • 503.861.8621 www.thehumanbean.com www.whitesheatingandsheetmetal.com Bob White • Scott White 2964 Highway 101N, Seaside 503-738-6361 - Builder #161035 Comfort Specialist Seagull Pride • Fall 2016 • Seaside Signal/Cannon Beach Gazette • 11
