After spending first semester together building their acting skills and techniques, Mrs. Maura Brew’s Acting class decided to take their final performance to the real stage. Complete with props, costumes, and a full cast of 19 students, the Acting class put together a piece from “Bury the Dead” by Irwin Shaw.
The play is about a group of six soldiers who perished in a war. When it comes time to bury them, the soldiers wake up and don’t know if they have a greater purpose to fulfill or how they are supposed to be accepted into society. The play continues, going more in depth with each character and his past.
Starting the process for this production back in November, the class has been putting forth a lot of effort into making it great. “They’re doing a fabulous job,” said Mrs. Brew, instructor of the Acting class. Although the class ended with first semester on January 16, the students continue to meet and use their new-found acting skills. “These student have been so good. They’re now coming to rehearsals every day, it’s not a class anymore, so they’re really doing it for the love of the show, and I am so proud of them,” said Mrs. Brew.
After taking their one act to the Fridley stage for a conference competition on January 17, the Acting class moved onto subsections, where they performed at Benilde-St. Margaret’s Hamburge Theater. The One Act cast earned a spot in sections which was held on February 7 at Edina after taking second place in subsections. “We performed at conference,” said Mrs. Brew, “and they did a magnificent job and came away with three awards: one All-Conference award for one individual and two honorable mentions for two others.”
Of all the students taking the class, only two are not freshmen. Those two are both sophomores. “It’s a very young cast,” said Mrs. Brew, “and we’re going into competition against primarily seniors, certainly upperclassmen.”
The students are enjoying their time and have grown closer together, making many new friendships. “We really got to know each other a lot better through the class, “ said freshman Jen Vogl.
Spending a couple of months on this 35-minute production, every scene has been finely polished. Taking a good three weeks to initially read through and revise the scripts, actors each had equal parts and possessed the skills to handle any of the characters. “I think one of the things about acting class is that by the end of acting class you should be able to take on pretty much any role,” said Mrs. Brew.
