Schools

Bay Drama Students Take On Critically-Acclaimed 'Arcadia'

The Whitefish Bay High School Theater Department tackles a lofty script that is sure to challenge the audience with questions about mathematics, physics, history and certainty of truth.

It's not your typical high school play: subjects such as thermodynamics, entropy and chaos theory all coming together in two separate time periods, glued together with a literary prose that makes the audience question the certainty of knowledge.

Theater Director John Coleman said Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" might be the most challenging show he has directed in his 13 years at the high school, but he said it has been rewarding to see students take on the weighty script.

"When I read it, I thought, 'What a fantastic script.' It's just so well written. I also knew that it was kind of heavy and deep, but it was just such an amazing script that I really wanted to do it," he said. "Technically it isn't that difficult, it was just a matter of whether I had the actors to do it, and we do."

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The play's overriding theme is about emotion versus intellect. As one character says, β€œIt’s the wanting to know that makes us matter." Coleman said the emphasis on continuous learning makes for a good fit with the high school students.

The play is set in an upscale English manor house in the early 1800s, where 13-year-old Thomasina Coverly, played by Dana Jankins, is distracted from her mathematical genius by a crush on her tutor Septimus Hodge, who is played by Braden Bjella. Her mother, Lady Croom, is played by Kelsey Pfeifer.

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The 1800s story is intertwined with a modern-day storyline of best-selling author, Hannah Jarvis, played by Michelle Desien, researching a hermit who once lived on the grounds as part of her book on β€œthe nervous breakdown of the Romantic imagination.” She works with a self-promoting academic named Bernard Nightingale, played by Patrick Pfeiffer, who is looking for clues to a previously unknown chapter in the life of Lord Byron. She also works with Valentine Coverly, played by Matt Klein. Another intellectual researcher, Chloe Coverly, is played by Katie Miller. Gus Coverly, Valentine and Chloe's younger brother, is played by freshman Andrew Fallone.

Since they began rehearsing in early October, the students have learned more than perfecting their English accents. They are also being exposed to Stoppard's heavy script, advanced acting and playing with the dueling time periods. For example, Coleman said there is an interesting contrast between Thomasina, the 13-year-old genius from the 1800s distracted by love, and the modern researcher Hannah Jarvis, who is more focused on learning about the 1800s storyline instead of pursuing romantic endeavors.

"The stories as you learn about them are kind of intertwined with each other," Coleman said. "You see one story, and then you hear about that first story from the people 200 years later. It's that constant juxtaposition of the scenes, and also what they are finding out about."

Desien, a junior, said she enjoys the back-and-forth between different time periods, which she said has challenged her acting skills and taught her to read and build off of other actors. Her character, Hannah Jarvis, is researching to find out the plot developments of the 1800s storyline.

"It's really entertaining to see us in the present day seem so certain of what we think is fact, and then in the next scene in the past, just have them disprove us completely," she said.

Because the two time periods appear in alternating scenes, the audience is more knowledgable about what is happening in the past than the modern day characters, such as herself.

"It definitely gives the audience a feeling of power because they get to witness what's right and what's wrong when we don't," Desien said.

Bjella, a junior, is taking a lead role for the first time in his high school theater career, and he said he enjoys the interplay between the two time periods and the heightened level of acting ability required in the final scene when past meets present.

"It's a challenge, but it's a wonderful challenge," he said.

Jankins, a junior, is also enjoying her first big role, as the 13-year-old mathematical genius that sasses off to her tutor.

"Life around her is insane, and her mother is crazy," she explains. "Even though she's too smart for her own good, she's the only normal one in the family."

Patrick Pfeifer, a senior, plays a modern-day university professor who is often wrong about his conclusions about the past, creating tension between characters.

"One of the most interesting things about this play is how wordy it is, which I think is not only a struggle but it is also very cool to be able to overcome these awesome phrasings of Tom Stoppard," Pfeiffer said.

The show will be held Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Whitefish Bay High School auditorium. Tickets can be purchased at the door: $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.


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