Reflecting and Preparing for the New Cardinal Players Season

With the school year starting, this means that the Cardinal Players are about to start auditions for the first show of their 2022/2023 season; Almost, Maine. Almost, Maine is a two act play comprised of 9 short plays that explore all different aspects of love in the small, mythical town of Almost, Maine. The show opens on Thursday, November 10th and runs until Sunday the 13th. Very soon after that, auditions for the Spring musical Funny Girl will take place. Funny Girl tells the story of Fanny brice; an up and coming theater star in the early 1900s. No one thinks she can make it in the theater industry until she gets discovered and then she only skyrockets from there breaking beauty stereotypes along the way. Both shows are amazing stories that are sure to encapsulate the audiences.

Junior Sophia Steen came and supported the drama club by coming to see both shows last year and had nothing but kind words to say about them. She loved Pride and Prejudice saying, “Normally I’m not one for plays but this one kept me engaged the whole time. It was so cool seeing people in the special hairstyles and accents to fit the time period.” She added “Newsies has always been one of my favorite shows and to see my peers perform it was so special for me. The dance numbers and sets were fantastic!” Junior Zoie Prandy was in Pride and Prejudice this past fall and it was her, “first time being in a school play” and she “learned a lot from my peers and the amazing directors about acting and theater, along with embarking on new friendships and connections.”

But enough with the past, now the club is looking to the future with this upcoming season and everyone is very excited to get started. Senior Elliot Fields was the stage manager for Newsies and she shared that, “My knowledge of Funny girl is down to whatever they talk about on Glee but I am super excited about the LGBTQ representation in Almost, Maine.” Junior Megan Howarth has been very involved in drama club since she was a freshman and was in both productions last year. She is looking forward to this season saying, “Almost, Maine is such a different show, with every scene being a different story and Funny Girl is definitely going to delight audiences with its fun upbeat songs.” Sophomore Isabelle Steen shared that she is, “very excited for Almost, Maine. I think it’s a good show for our theater program and the amount of roles gives everyone a chance to shine.”

AP US History teacher Todd Smith directed Pride and Prejudice last fall and will be directing Almost, Maine. He wanted to share that, “Last year we had great success. We had Pride and Prejudice and Newsies, which gave kids an opportunity. The goal last year was to give as many kids as many opportunities as possible. That’s why we had such a large show with Pride and Prejudice and why we had Newsies. It was to get kids on stage. This year’s shows are paired down a little bit more, no less complicated to do or no less challenging to do. For instance Almost, Maine is about relationships and love or the sense of love or not really knowing love. So there’s a lot of room for character development and that emotional aspect that is going to carry the show. The emotions are what is going to carry the show, not the blocking, not the lights.”

Ms. Bittman is the AP Literature teacher. She directed Newsies last year and she will be directing Funny Girl this Winter. She shared that she is, “Really excited to reach the next level of what this theater program is going to be and its opportunities as we continue to grow. Last year we had over 100 students that were involved throughout the year and we didn’t lose anybody and we are adding a whole grade. So I imagine it will be from 100-150 kids so I want to give as many chances for people to do their thing.” AP Lang teacher Mr. Dempsey is also involved in the theater program by assisting Mr. Smith with the play and also this year doing one acts in the Spring. He shared that as a theater company, “We are really excited to begin one acts here at Crofton High School, we think it’s a wonderful opportunity to empower student leadership and student voice and student creativity by having students direct, perform and really take on those leadership roles that really translate from highschool to college and beyond.”

All we know is that the Cardinal Players started off with a bang with last year’s season and everyone is looking forward to the upcoming shows. If you are interested in being involved in this upcoming season auditions for Almost, Maine are the second week of school and audition sign ups as well as audition materials are available on the audition page of the Cardinal Players website: https://sites.google.com/aacps.org/testcardinalplayers/home As a club one of their main objectives is when they can “find opportunities to give kids stage time or backstage time we are going to try to do our best. That is our goal, just to get kids involved.”