Deerfield High School - O YAD Yearbook (Deerfield, IL)

Page 29 text:

Y. Jim Shankman, who portrays Finian, ponders a problem of characterization. Gold Stirs Up Excitement ln Rainbow Valley On Saint Patrick's Day weekend, two months of work by students and faculty members culminated in the presentation of Finian's Rainbow. Although produced using the script and music of Harburg, Saidy and Lane, staging at Deerfield was done entirely through the ef- forts of students and teachers. The plot concerns Finian and his daughter Sharon, Irish immigrants who settle in Rainbow Valley, Missa- tucky, where Finian buries the crock of gold which he has stolen from a leprechaun, Og. Then complications arise. A land feud develops as do romances between Sharon and Woody, a young man of Rainbow Valley, and the leprechaun and Susan Mahoney, a deaf mute. Besides outstanding choral and dance numbers,which included Old Devil Moon, Begat, sung by the Pas- sion Pilgrim Gospelers and SomethingSortofGrandish, a leprechaun love songg there were special effects. Thun- der and lightning, a leprechaun whose green color grad- ually faded, a cypress tree and Finian's rainbow created by students backstage enriched the enthusiastic per- formance ofthe cast. Woody Mahoney's return, enacted by Randy Dahlberg, results in rejoicing in Rainbow Valley. MUSICAL 23

Page 28 text:

The Old Devil Moon puts sparkle in Sharon's, in reality Leslie Baird's, eyes according to Woody, who is played by Randy Dahlberg. During rehearsal, lVlr. Alleman pauses a moment before continuing his directions. L X 1 E se in-. 1, f- , . U fl : g f , f 4W7' Q ,E t Bob Wainess as Buzz Collins extolls his own virtues to Senator Rawkin's, played by Tim Evans. Glocca llflorra is the subject of Ann 22 MUSICAL l ! Levi's q uery as she portrays Sharon lVlcLonergan.

Page 30 text:

Scopes Trial Enacfed With Dramatic Realism Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, was this year's spring play. The play is based on the Scopes trial of the 192O's, in which the practice of teaching the theory of evolution in public schools was questioned. A school teacher is tried in the deep South in the height of summer and reporters arrive to be pres- ent for the history-making decision. Stage Crew had extra work for this play. Rather than use the regular procenium stage, a thrust was built out into the orchestra pit. This change in standard procedure gave the audience the sensation of actually being in the courtroomg and to increase this feeling, several characters who were to speak from among the courtroom spectators were planted amidst the audience. As a final touch of realism, the actual microphone which WGN used to cover the Scopes trial was among the props for the Deerfield production. The townspeople are interested in hearing the case of Jamie Rigler in the part of Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Harrison Brady. 24 PLAY