Yorktown High School - Episode Yearbook (Yorktown, IN)

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Ironing out complications with the new sound sys- tem is Senior Todd Young at a technical rehearsal for the fall play. Front Page Cast-Rovi 1: C. Terrell, L. May.B. Lotz, A. Patterson, S. Winslow. Row 2: T. Nelson, D. Taylor, N. Thise, A. ( iarroll. J. Riggs, P. Grimes, J. Collin-. D. Slagle Row 3: M. Sindlinger, S. Monks, C. Mitchell, M. Reno, J. Bright, B. Holloway, D. Lamirand, K. Morey, T. Gil- bert, M. Worley, T. Keihn, G. Peirce, R. Werling, R. Nottingham. L Now Fred, don ' t get excited! instructs Sheriff Mike Worley to Chicago Mayor David Slagle, as he panics over the jailbreak. FALL PLAY 17

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A predominately rookie cast spent late nights rehearsing a play that relied heavily on dialogue but was still worthy of... PRESENTING Ine rront rage t ' s Chicago and the time is the 1930 ' s. The scene is the newsroom. It ' s here we meet Hildy, portrayed by Sophomore Leon May. Hildy wants to break away from the news- paper business and go on a belated honeymoon. There is a jailbreak and into Hildy ' s hands falls the escapee as hostage. He hides his prize under a rolltop desk and calls his editor Walter, played by Fresh- man Brett Lotz. The three act play, presented on Novemberl and 2, by members of the Drama Club, was an especially difficult play to present, according to Director Terry Nelson. It was a difficult play to pro- duce because the story relied heav- ily on dialogue. There was a lot of memorization and late rehearsals. It was so unusual in that over three-fourths of the cast were new- comers to the stage, Nelson said. The story re- lj . volved around a jailbreak and break- ing of a big story . The come- dy, once made into a popular movie starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, popular- ized poker playing outside of rehearsals and at the cast party since the reporters in the play had to rehearse the game so much. Besides the on stage direction and acting, the set crew, consisting ofbot s and drama club corn- worked hours on weekends transforming the audito- rium stage into the setting of a 1930 ' s Chicago newsroom. The Steve Winslow ushers added to the illusion as they even dressed as newsboys and passed our Front Page programs to high- light the performance. Also instrumental to the show ' s suc- cess were the light and sound crews, consisting of Juniors George Poulsen and Joe Sanders, and Seniors Todd Young and Frank Williams. The sound men handled the task of working out the loopholes in the new $20,000 sound system. Poulsen admitted, We got feed- back from the new equipment and had to work around it all, but it worked out alright in the end. Besides the trou- ble with the sound system, the cast was confronted with another prob- lem: Where were they going to find a rolltop desk big enough to stuff the escaped murderer, played by Senior Steve Winslow? The prop committee members couldn ' t find one, so Nelson simply rewrote part of Act Three to hide the murderer under the desk. Nelson laughed, The results were funnier than how it was originally written. Student directors were Thespi- ans Jennifer Johnson and Dawn Taylor. The tough, macho reporters were fun to portray, stated Senior Kevin Morey, who played Reporter McCue, but it took me forever to get the ' Chicago twang ' . That ' s right, Walter, I quit! fumes Hildy, played by Sophomore Leon May, while reporters Fresh- man Jeff Riggs and Junior Todd Gilbert look on. Brad Holloway 16 FALL PL A Y

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Changes in the choir department sparked enthusiasm for a different type of Fall Preview. The theme of this year ' s show celebrated... PERFORM American Pop ith new risers, new outfits, a new sound system and a whole new show, this year ' s choir members work ed hard to produce a quality Fall Preview on November 16 and 18. In the past, the show included varieties of pop, country, broad- way, jazz and gospel. This year ' s theme, American Pop, forced the choir members to per form more pop music than anything else. Choir director Joanne Keesling felt that a change in the order of the show was needed to spice it up. After six years of the same format, I felt the need for change. I think it turned out real nice. The change in the order of the show included the entire first half as a fast-paced, non-stop medley of pop music from the ' 50 ' s through the ' 80 ' s. Highlights included solo- ists senior Mike Jarnagin ' s Only You, and Junior Shelley Gillette ' s Flashdance. The second por- tion of the show opened with a broadway number with various solos and duets inserted between each choir ' s section of the show. Perhaps the most diffi- cult part came in the Oz Wiz med- ley. The medley was done in true Wiz style, including Wizard of Oz character Dorothy, soloist Jun- ior Tracy Walder. It featured many special effects that required precise timing. Timing and many hours of work combined to make the show a suc- Norrie Owens cess, selling out on its first perfor- mance. Each choir practiced at the start of the school year. As the per- formance day neared, there were many more mass choir practices that lasted far past the 2:45 pm bell. I never thought I ' d make it. The practices were so much harder that I was used to from middle school choir, admitted first-year member Molly Burress. This year ' s show included harder choreography than in the past, ac- cording to Keesling. Former swing choir member Damon Brown, cur- rently a member of Ball State Sin- gers, taught much of the choreo- graphy for the first half of the show. Sharing time with practice was time selling dif- ferent things to fund the new $1250 synthesizer, and the $2850 for risers. The annual rock-a-thon raised the money for the new outfits purchased this year The choirs sold through the summer such items as gift checks, trash bags, and vanilla. With Fall Preview being the first show of the year in the newly reno- vated auditorium, the sound sys- tem was hard to work with. It was frustrating working with the sound system because it had just been installed and the levels weren ' t set yet, commented Junior George Poulsen, who worked with the sys- tem. Along with Poulsen was Jun- ior Ryan Swain, and the lighting crew consisted of Seniors Mark Voiles and Derek Neff. Junior Mike Hendrickson worked on the light board. David Slagle 18 FALL PREVIEW