North High School - Tower Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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4 . gy. f. ..: K5 tix.: Le 1 2 Over six hundred students attend C 7 special assembly performance of After a brief cancellation that occurred shortly after production began, the Drama, Department was able to pick up the pieces when the cancellation was lifted and present the comedy Harvey on November 16, 17. Wlritten by Mary Chase, Harvey told the story of Elwood P. Dowd, a pleasant forty- seven year-old man, played by David East, whose best friend was an invisible six-foot white rabbit named Harvey. Lanette Kirkpatrick played Elwood's sister, Veta Louise Simmons. She tried to commit Elwood to an institution, but in- stead ended up being-mistaken as the pa- tient who befriends Harvey and is locked up in Elwood's place. Soon there is a frantic search to find Elwood and place him in the institute to in- ject him with Formula 977, a serum developed by world renouned doctor of psychiatry Dr. Willis Chumley, played by Robby Pogue, that rids. psychiatric patients of hallucinations and brings them back to reality, thus turning them into the normal everyday person who must find fault and express negative criticism toward everything. The problem? Should Veta let Dr. Chumley give Elwood the injection and live the rest of het life with a fault finding man,or let Elwood remain the way he is, a nice harmless individual? Harvey was not just a play about a man and the situations that arise because he shares a relationship with an imaginary six- foot white rabbit, it was also a play that had a message to relay to the audience. A message about morals and more important- ly, human values. Following the final performance on November 16, it was decided by director Charles Fischer and the students involved in the production to hold a special assembly performance of the play. The last time the' Drama' Department had an assembly per- formance for the student body was many years ago, but due to the lack of attendance during evening presentations and produc- tion costs, a December 1 assembly was held. It was also decided that if the show went well more assembly performances would be considered for the student body. The play was originally over an hour long and to fit it into third hour period a lot of cutting and editing had to be done. By striking out parts of dialogue, scenes, and set changes, the cast and crew of Harvey were able to cut twenty minutes from the original script. At curtain time, over six hundred students had paid to see Harvey. It felt really good to ree a maforzty of the reatr filled hy North Hzgh rtadentr, raid Lanette Kzrhpatneh, jemale lead Once they raw what we are capahle of I hope they wzll come to ree more produc- tions. 1 A 1 i I E I Realizing that the mistake of placing Veta Simmons in the institution was not the fault of his aide, Robby Pogue tells his assistant Dr. Lyman Sanderson, played by Skip Dewey, that he has reconsidered his decision of terminating his employment. Perfomers take advantage of every spare moment between scenes to change costumes, go over dialogue, or search for an important prop. While waiting for the curtain to open and begin the second act, cast members Marieke Wolfe, Robby Pogue and David East take a few minutes to converse during intermission. 5

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?5afs:f:?a5 f2,ftrf?r.rsra2f:gS Mu ical Adding additional dialogue from books antaining Peanuts comic strips to roaden the cast, the Performing Arts Department presented the musical, You 're . Good Man. Charlze Brown on March 8, 9 nd 10, with an additional Sunday after- oon matinee on March 11. Based on the characters of the Petmuts Jmic strip by Charles Shultz, the musical :arred Robby Pogue as Charlie Brown, Dan Villiams as Snoopy. Debbie Rymer as Lucy, David East as Linus, Dennis Ray as chroeder, and Teri Lisenby as Sally. Musical numbers for the program were rovided by Steve Priddle on piano, Terri Lnoll on flute, and Malinda Matney on rums and percussion. Given the theme of a day in the life of Iharlie Brown, the play followed him rirough the beginning of school to the iaseball season of spring, There was not a lot involved in the story and, because it was given an everyday situation type set- ting, the events in the play could be pulled together and become more understanding to an audience. Throughout the show, Charlie Brown found himselfa failure to himself as well as his peers. He admits that he thinks nobody believes in him, but in the end everyone, including his worst critic Lucy, lets charlie Brown know that more people believe in him than he could imagine. The musical previously set to run in March was F1'n1L1n's Rarnhow, but due to the lack of performers needed to fill the roles, director Charles Fischer and musical director Marty johnson selected You 're a good man,Cht1rf1e Brown because it consisted ofa small cast. Instead of choosing the cast by holding another set of auditions, those who had auditioned for F1'n1an's Rainhow were automatically placed in roles to keep the Qi? as 3 .. 5 ,QL t , . w.f.,,L , ,E , 'Q ,: , 3' AJ I Y K lax Pogue ,Y 4 W V yy ie Rymer we R. 1 eff ayid East xl-'.'g .Q A-.I .... . .semia- show from slipping behind in production. Another break came when Southeast's Drama Department offered to rent out props, costumes, and sets they had used in their production of Snoopy in November. Instead of presenting the play on the whole of the stage, the cast performed on a much smaller stage constructed by the seventh hour Stagecraft class. The smaller stage was placed against the back wall of the larger auditorium stage and platforms were placed in a semi-circle to hold an audience of about two-hundred people. Student directing for You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown was all new to me. However, I enjoyed seeing my ac- complzshments from off' stage and rehear- sals put together for a performance. I guess you could say that I enjoyed hebing to make the show something worthwhzfe for an audience to see, commented student dzrector Heather McCrea. Man While walking by a brick wall, Teri Lisenby asks her school ifit enjoys having Satur days away from the children who attend there.