The Chapel Hill High School drama department will put on its second play of the year, Sense and Sensibility, from November 21-23 at 7 p.m.
The play is based on the novel Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, which tells the coming of age story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne.
The students involved in the show had fewer than two months to prepare for the production.
“The first and second play have each had roughly five weeks, not counting auditions,” theater teacher Thomas Drago said. “That pace is really fast for high school.”
He said he is proud of how the students have pulled the show together on a tight deadline.
“The actors are doing an amazing job,” Drago said. “I do a lot of the acting theory training during Theater II; that way when they are in Theater III and Theater IV it can be more product-based rather than process.”
Performances will be held in the Hanes Theatre, and tickets are priced at $10 for adults and $5 for children and students.
Juniors Lucy Marques and Louise Belser play the lead roles in the production: sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.
Belser, who has participated in three plays with the school, said her favorite part of the process has been creating friendships with her fellow cast members.
“I love the bonds I’ve made with this cast,” she said. “It’s also really fun and beautiful to see people in my Theatre II class grow as actors.”
Belser added that she has really enjoyed playing Marianne in this production.
“For me, my favorite part of playing Marianne is relating and feeling her character arc,” she said. “She’s easy for me to relate to, and to go on this journey for her, so to speak, is very interesting to me.”
Marques said she can also relate to the character she plays on many levels.
“I really notice similarities and differences between her character and myself,” she said. “She is such a complex character, and doing the character work to build relationships with the other actors has been so much fun and very rewarding.”
Drago said that one of the aspects he values the most about the program is the fact that it is student-run.
“By the time students have spent several years in the theater program, they are capable of running the show,” Drago said. “For this production, in particular, the director, assistant director, stage managers and assistant stage managers are all students.”
He added that one unique aspect of this production is the fact that it is set locally.
“We decided to minimize our tech for performances this year,” he said. “For this performance, we decided to set it in modern-day Carrboro.”
He said that the costumes and set pieces mimic things that could be seen in downtown Carrboro.
The production’s director, senior Kate Keelan, said directing the show has allowed her to gain a well-rounded understanding of acting and theater as a whole.
“I’ve been in a couple of experiences before as an actor, and it is a completely different experience directing,” she said. “Being able to have a vision for a whole show and work individually with each of the actors to make the show as good as it can be has been a really valuable experience.”
Keelan said she believes the themes of the show are very important, especially for adolescent audiences.
“It’s about being an individual, finding love, and being able to find your way in the world,” she said. “I think it’s really important to be aware of these kinds of stories, especially since we are young people and trying to find ourselves.”
Drago added that the overall message of the play deals with the idea of impulsivity.
“I would say the overall theme is to make sure that you don’t act impulsively,” he said. “I think that, especially since this is a dated story, there is a stereotype that women act irrationally, and this story is about how that is not true.”
Marques, who has participated in one other production at the school, said tech week has really helped bring the performance to life.
“Tech week has been really fun because we’ve been here very late every night,” she said. “It’s exhausting, but it’s just been so much fun, and you can feel the energy of the cast increasing.”
Belser added that she is confident the cast will convey the message of the story through their performances.
“My goal for the cast is for us to really live the story and feel the truth of the characters and display that story and message to the audience,” she said.
