In front of the closed red curtains of the Performing Arts Center (PAC), an armchair sits on stage left. The bustling audience of parents, students and teachers wait for the show to begin.
Every year the Drama III/IV combined class puts on their completely student-run Drama III/IV show. This year’s performance consisted of two-one-act plays: Sean Abley’s “The Rise of the House of Usher,” a mystery-comedy written as a meta-sequel for Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Wade Bradford’s “Director’s Nightmare,” a comedy about a high school play production where everything seems to be going wrong. Senior Nicki Weppner, who played Ren McCormick in Woodside’s 2024 production of “Footloose: The Musical” directed the first act and senior Kadian Smith, who played Ethel McCormick in that same production directed the second act. The show served as a showcase of the skills Drama III and IV students have developed over their time in the program. Junior Maxwell Tienken acted in “The Rise of the House of Usher” as Dr. William Nelson and stage managed for “Director’s Nightmare.” In doing so, he gave perspective on experiences both on and off stage.
“I got to work a lot with Kadian and the other directors on [‘Director’s Nightmare’],” Tienken said. “[We were] staging it, making sure we had scheduling done, props, sets, costumes and all that. While I did not do all of those things specifically, I more kind of oversaw the whole process. That was really fun.”
While Tienken enjoyed expressing creativity in a student-led environment, the team faced difficulties in completing the show due to Advanced Placement testing in the weeks prior. Tienken shared how the end of May also came with the need to prepare for finals.
“It was really hard to make the show a priority when I had so many other big things that were happening,” Tienken said.
Despite these obstacles, the show yielded high rewards with about two-thirds of the PAC full the night of the show. In previous years, the turnout had not been as high.
“We’ve never really marketed [the show] before,” Tienken said. “We did that for the first time this year. We put up posters around campus and then had the actual people [in the show to] try to get people to come…From what I’ve heard, [it] was a really good way to get more people in.”
Some of this advertising was in the form of posters around the school, and the rest might have been seen on the @whsdramaboosters Instagram. Overall, Tienken said that this year’s Drama III/IV show was a success and that it was an effective opportunity to showcase the skills learned in Drama class.
“I think it is even more impressive what we were able to do without the support of a lot of the adults,” Tienken said. “We were able to pull [it] together [at the] last minute…We didn’t have a ton of time to fully dedicate ourselves to this yet, we still managed to pull it off.”
