East's Fall Play: Study No More

East Theatre Company is made up of the students and staff who are responsible for our amazing theatrical productions every fall and spring. This year, East Theatre wrote their fall play from scratch in collaboration with members of the company, including Dave Medicus, Dasheill Brennan, Malena Lubbert, and many others. 

Photos of Study No More Previews By Genesis Martinez

The show they wrote, titled Study No More, is based on the similarly titled interactive performance: Sleep No More, which is based in New York and follows the story of Shakespeare's Macbeth. East's production takes the interactive aspect of this show and applies it to a story that showcases the 100-year history of East's current building. While simultaneously taking the audience through the building, with scenes in many different rooms of the school including the library, the museum, and an ending scene in the clocktower overlooking the city skyline.

The idea for this show came to the director of the East Theatre Company Deborah Voss, last year. The show is a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the school which coincided with a project lead by Mr. Fulford where he digitized material from the bell tower museum.  Voss heard that the district wasn’t doing much to celebrate the schools anniversary and she felt that it was the theatre companies responsibility to celebrate the achievement.

Writing the fall play from scratch comes with its own unique pros and cons. One good thing that comes out of writing the script is the collaboration that it allows between the actors and the writers; this collaboration leads to a stronger script that makes more sense when translated to the stage. Deborah Voss said, “I believe this has probably been one of the most collaborative processes as far as creating a piece of work. I feel like it's such a huge collaboration between the writers, the actors, the directors, and the stage craft,” when asked about the pros of writing the script in an interview. This collaboration is helpful for the writers and  actors to make sure the script makes sense when translated to the stage.

Photos of Study No More Previews By Genesis Martinez

On the other hand, writing the script caused a delay in the rehearsal process. The original plan was to have the creative writing students from last year write the script in small parts as an assignment. However, the company didn't get much material they could use, causing the writing process to surpass the summer deadline. This caused rehearsals to be delayed until later in the semester than they would usually start by about a month starting in late September, opposed to the usual schedule which would start in early September. Junior Penelope Strand had this to say about the delays, “It was a work-in-progress script and it had different variations, but overall it has become a very strong and powerful piece."  

So would East do a production like this again? When asked in an interview Deborah Voss says that we would, and definitely will. Study No More isn’t the first student-written production to be put on at East. If you're a senior, you might remember the fall play in 2023, Red Ink was also student-written. This production, as well as original works which are written by creative writing students and performed by the level 3 Theatre students, and Senior Projects, which are based on existing material and edited down by the senior directors. So student written/edited productions happen every year, so this is nothing new for East Theatre company. 

In an interview, Deborah Voss said, “My hope is that when the audience leaves the tower, they leave with a sense of the history that is East High School in its current building.”  So the goal of this project is to show the people who come to see it the East legacy, and nothing is more fitting to show that legacy then an East theatre production. Despite the delays the show and its actors have powered through to create a final product that there is no doubt will stun the audience.