Effingham High School - Signet Yearbook (Effingham, IL)

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SENIOR CLASS PLAY The Brooks family, as portrayed by the class of '57, in the play, THE BABBLING BROOKS, was indeed a peculiar one. Nettie Brooks simply couldn't resist the chance to embroider any choice bits of gossip she obtained. Because of this weakness, she found her- self involved in a struggle with Hal Weston, the new young sheriff. When Hal comes to the Brooks home to ask Nettie to please refrain from talking, he meets her daughter, Norma, and immediately falls in love. Homer, Norma's fourteen year old brother, also has love troubles heightened by Betty's neighborhood news- paper. Betty, age fifteen, is a live wire who throws the whole neighborhood into a panic with her publica- tion. The family is rounded out by Granny Brooks who decides she's tired of feeling forty and looking seventy, Carol Kingsley and Julia Parker, the two young TV mystery play writers who live in the apartment on the second floor of the Brooks home, unknowingly provide Betty and her high school clique with a scoop for their first publication of the BABBLER. When they print all the facts about an undiscovered murder, things come to a vortex. In the course of events in this highly amusing play, Betty learns to deal with facts she's sure of, Nettie learns that gossip can be fatal, Hal decides the Brooks home is no suitable place for his beloved, and Granny emerges gloriously as a chic television actress. Homer, -- l. .1 well, unfortunately, Homer didn't learn anything, but he definitely enjoyed his grief when his romance was ruined, The seniors who worked on this play had a marvelous time and felt they had really accomplished something when the returns came rolling in. Mrs. Tatge directed the play. CAST Edith Matthews, Kay, Marilyn Strobel, Betty, Emma Lou Edwards, Mrs, Brooks, Paula Engel, Bessie, Donna Stanton, Grandma Brooks, Sally Siddens, Norma, Ronald Worstell, Hal Weston, Elna Jackson, Carol Kingsley. Second row, Kay King, Bonnie Burns, Charles Keller, Greg, Jane Dolbow, Madge, Dale Grace, Done, Randall Schormann, Homer, Lynne Luttrell, Julia Parker. Emma Lou Edwards is being told off by Paula Engel while Marilyn Strobel receives the same treatment from Randall Schormann with Jane Dolbow watching RE GY .19- INE- UNULW WM The national monument on the opposite page is Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

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JUNIOR CLASS PLAY O OUR TOWN Frank Davis regards Sharon Scherer and Don Marilyn Strobel looks Thomas as they sip their sodas in this drug at the moon from her store scene. upstairs IOOYU OUR TOWN, by Thornton Wilder, was presented by the class of '57, in their junior year, This play was one of the most unusual ever presented at Effingham High School, The almost complete lack of props on the stage heightened the drama presented by the simple, substantial people of Grover's Corner, the scene of the play, The first act presents the characters in their everyday living. The Gibbs and Webb homes are shown on stage, and those families go about their normal routine. ln the second act the plot thickens. George Gibbs and Emily Webb are in love, This act shows their discovery of love and the problems which confront all young people, The climax is a wedding ceremony during which the basic emotions of life are brought sharply into focus, The final act takes place in the cemetery. The staging is simple and one's entire attention is focused on Emily who, after death, returns to Grover's Corners to revisit some of her childhood haunts. The basic theme of this moving play is the fact that the past cannot be relived, We often rush through life without stopping to realize how good and important small things really are, Mr. Newton, the director, double-cast the parts of Emily and Mrs. Webb. CAST Frank Davis, STAGE MANAGERg Marilyn Strobel, EMILY, Donna Stanton, MRS, GlBBSg Bette Neal, REBECCA, Barbara Webb, ORGANISTg Jane Dolbow, LADY IN BOX, Emma Lou Edwards, MRS, WEBB, Paul Tolch, BASEBALL PLAYER, Sharon Scherer, EMILY, Paula Engel, WOMAN OF TOWN. Second row: Tony Manuel, SIMON STIMSONg Richard Wooley, JOE STODDARDg David Steffen, SAM CRAIGg Max Sinkler, PROFESSOR WlLLARDg James Fagen, CROWELLQ Don Thomas, GEORGE, Ronald Worstell, HOWIE NEWSOMEQ David Wernsing, CONSTABLE WARREN: Charles Stevens, DR, GlBBSg John Austin, MR, WEBB, Charles Keller, WALLYg Connie Bosley, MRS, SOAMESg Sally Siddens, MRS, WEBB, Norma Newkirk, WOMAN OF THE TOWN. 1956 ' -

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