During the weekend of May 6th through May 10th, Thunder Ridge’s drama department put on a production of the musical The Drowsy Chaperone that did not disappoint. The play was performed in house here at Thunder Ridge with a cast consisting of all TRHS students. The play was done almost identically to the original Broadway production. Here at Thunder Ridge, The Drowsy Chaperone was directed by Jordan Cammack and starred, (Garrett Shippen, Chiara Cannon, Brian Spaulding, Adam Jewell, Taylor Bills) The story of The Drowsy Chaperone was an exceptional one, and it took immense talent to bring that story to life the way that our drama department did. From the beautiful costumes, to the very well thought out set design (and not to mention the incredibly talented cast), one can’t help but be impressed by this production and all of the hard work that went into it by our classmates. The play, in fact, went so exceptionally well, that they decided to add another night, May 10th, to accommodate the overflow from previous showings. 

The Drowsy Chaperone is a parody of American musical comedy of the 1920s. The story centers around a middle-aged, shy, musical theater fan. As he plays the record of his favorite musical (The Drowsy Chaperone), the show comes to life onstage as the actors and characters parade out of his refrigerator as the story progresses. This all happens while the narrator  sarcastically comments on the music, story, and actors. The play here at Thunder Ridge was narrated by “Garrett Shippen” who helped everyone understand what was going on in the play and gave amazing commentary that helped the audience learn more about the characters. During the first wedding, there is more happening behind the love story as a man named Feldzieg played by “Isaac Sanchez Brambila” is trying to stop Janet played by “Taylor Bills”  and Robert played by “Adam Jewell,” from getting married. In the end the aviator Trix played by “Makenna Serr” decides to marry everyone in the air because George, who was the best man, fired the priest earlier in the show. But it all worked out, everyone got married and they all were happy. Except for Feldzieg, who was forced into the marriage, and Adolpho, who no longer wanted to marry the chaperone, but for the most part, everyone was happy.

After all the performances were said and done, one of our staff writers was able to secure an interview with three of the lead roles in the play; Garret Shippen, Chiara Cannon, and Taylor Bills all had some interesting things to say regarding their thoughts on the play. As far as the technical side of things goes, Taylor Bills was extremely involved with set design and prop creation and according to her, ¨One of the most challenging technical things that popped up was figuring out how to make the refrigerator work out.¨ But other than that according to Bills the play went extremely well. One common theme amongst all of the responses from these three leads was that they believed that, in this play in particular, there was amazing unity within the leading roles and cast members. They believed that everyone communicated well, and everyone really took on the persona of the character that they were supposed to be playing. In addition to the lead cast running smoothly, our staff writer asked Chiara Cannon for her thoughts on how the newer cast members performed. In her opinion she believes that, ¨With so many of our core drama people graduating this year it is going to be tough to fill those spots. But after this play I really think that the drama department is in good hands.¨  All three of these cast members agreed that The Drowsy Chaperone went better than they had hoped and were shocked when they received the attendance response that they did. All three were also extremely proud of the show that they had produced here at Thunder Ridge. Both Taylor Bills and Chiara Cannon are seniors and this will have been their last show with us here at Thunder Ridge. Garret Shippen has one more year here as he is a Junior, and we as a staff, are excited to see what kind of shows he will be in in the future.