Troy students perform annual play
<p>Scene 3: Lazy Eye with Anada Jones, left, and Tristyn Winebark. Troy Junior/Senior High School's productioin of "16 in 10 Minutes or Less."</p>
<p>Scene 2: Brace Youself with Kasey Faur, left, as Piper and John Fossen as James. Piper prepares to pull an eraser out of James' mouth.</p>
<p>Scene One: Friend Request with Malia Thornburg as Laura in Troy Junior/Senior High School's production of "16 in 10 Minutes or Less."</p>
Troy High School students performed the play “16 in 10 Minutes or Less,” Tuesday night in their school auditorium.
Music teacher Sheri Schweitzer directed the students in a Troy High School production of the play by Bradley Hayward. Schweitzer, the school’s drama director, was assisted by Jolene Huntsberger and Tabitha Maust.
The play had five scenes, each one highlighting a different aspect of the modern teenager’s life, such as their social struggles, their mental processes and their family lives in a comedic way.
The first scene, “Friend Request,” featured several students at a local high school, all age 16, sending friend requests to each other. After the friend requests were all accepted or denied, the students talked to each other over instant message and joking with each other, usually at one or more other students’ expense.
Scene two, “Brace Yourself,” featured two teenagers, a brother and a sister. The brother attempted to get the sister’s help in removing something that got stuck between his teeth. The scene develops into an argument between the two over which of them was better than the other.
Scene three, “Lazy Eye,” featured two eyes arguing with each other over the little things in life, with one eye being more realistic and the other being more idealistic.
Scene four, “Pay Phone,” starred a boy trying to use a pay phone to call his parents. What starts out as a simple emergency phone call turns into a mental struggle with his own insecurities.
Scene five, “Status Update: A Symphony,” features the same cast as “Friend Request,” with each of the students reciting status updates in response to several different circumstances, such as their parents being away from home or a mid-term that was right around the corner. This scene had a small musical accompaniment, courtesy of Schweitzer.
Each scene was funny in its own way, but the performers also took some time out of each scene to engage in some serious conversations about particular issues. Troy High School student John Fossen gave a humorous performance as James, a role he played in four of the production’s scenes.
The students who performed in the play were members of an unofficial drama club.
Schweitzer expressed pride in her students’ work, saying that the play went exactly as she had hoped and that she could think of nothing about the play that could have been better.
“I think the nervous excitement that the performers had was good,” said Schweitzer. “They did theatre for the first time and now they know what it’s like.”
Schweitzer said that this production would be the only one for this year.
She doesn’t currently have any idea about what next year’s production might be, but people can expect one production every year moving forward.