Treasure Island closes out careers of senior drama students

photo or infographic by Summer Rains
ARGHHHH. In the production of Treasure Island, senior Colton Backhus channels his inner pirate as his plays the role Calico Jack.

The Theater 3-4 Dramakats presented Treasure Island for a full audience in the black box Wednesday, April 28.

The lively show followed a young boy and a group of pirates through some misadventures.The two Theater 3-4 classes have been working tirelessly since January to perfect their show; however, some students weren’t sure if the show was ready to be seen.

“My biggest worry going into show day was a few scenes that had been rough the week prior,” junior Addison Williams said. “The flow of the scenes was a little too slow, and it made the show longer than intended. In the end, those rough scenes ended up being my favorite and the most enjoyable scenes from the show, and it was an overall success.”

To prepare her students for their final public show, drama teacher Cassandra Matlock had her students perform in front of all of her Theater 1 students in a process she likes to call trial by fire.

“I personally think trial by fire is the perfect way to grow a show and a cast,” junior Brody McNew said. “Rehearsal is much different from performing in front of an audience. Looking at the first show compared to the last one, they were completely different.”

Nevertheless, there were still hopeful students out there praying for an excellent finish to this year’s production season.

“I would say the last day when we did all of our shows for the Drama 1 classes and some other classes, we as a class made the executive decision to have fun rather than be super serious,” junior Peyton Sewell said. “The first show was really rough all around, and I really wasn’t sure that we were going to make it to the final show that night in one piece. By the third show, we all just decided we were going to have fun with the play and whatever happened would happen.”

With this show being the last hurrah for the class of 2022, many students were feeling sentimental.

“I’ll admit, being completely finished feels weird,” senior Joshua Brookshire said. “Including this, I’ve done 12 shows for this school, and it feels like a part of my life is now finished. All that being said, I’m excited to move on to the next part. The best and worst part about acting is that once it’s over, all you have is the memories.”