HCHS theater presentations announced

The Holmes County High School Drama Department announces their schedule for the 2010 – 2011 school year.

The first show will be Pump Boys and Dinettes, written byJohn Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann.  The pump boys sell high octane on Highway 57 in Grand Ole Opry country and the dinettes, Prudie and Rhetta Cupp, run the Double Cupp Diner next door. Together they fashion an evening of country western songs that received unanimous raves on and off Broadway. They perform on guitars, piano, bass and, yes, kitchen utensils.

The dates for Pump Boys and Dinettes will be Thursday October 14, Saturday October 16, and Monday October 18 beginning at 7:00.

The winter show will be The Miracle Worker written by William Gibson.  Immortalized onstage and screen by Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, this classic tells the story of Annie Sullivan and her student, blind and mute Helen Keller. The Miracle Worker dramatizes the volatile relationship between the lonely teacher and her charge. Trapped in a secret, silent world, unable to communicate, Helen is violent, spoiled, almost sub-human and treated by her family as such. Only Annie realizes that there is a mind and spirit waiting to be rescued from the dark, tortured silence. With scenes of intense physical and emotional dynamism, Annie's success with Helen finally comes with the utterance of a single, glorious word: "water".  

The dates for The Miracle Worker are Thursday December 2, Saturday
December 4, Sunday December 5 beginning at 2:30, and Monday December 6.
A one night special performance will take place on Saturday March 26,
2011. The Past Five Years will be a  review of all musicals performed at
Holmes County High School since 2006 including Bah Humbug!, Bye, Bye
Birdie, You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Grease, Into the Woods, & Back
to the 80’s. The original cast members from each show will be back to
perform together. 

The spring show in 2011 will be The Drowsy Chaperone with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and the book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar. The Drowsy Chaperone is a tribute to American musicals of the Jazz Age, examining the effect musicals have on the fans who adore them.

The Man in Chair, a mousy, agoraphobic Broadway fanatic, seeking to cure his "non-specific sadness", listens to a recording of a fictional 1928 musical comedy, The Drowsy Chaperone. As he listens to this rare recording, he is transported into the musical. The characters appear in his dingy apartment, and it is transformed into an impressive Broadway set with seashell footlights, sparkling furniture, painted backdrops, and glitzy costumes. The concept that the audience is listening to the musical on an old LP is used throughout the show. At one point, the record "skips", which causes the last notes (and dance steps) of a song to be repeated until the Man in Chair can bump the turntable. A "power outage" near the end causes the stage to go dark in the middle of the big production number.  The show won the 5 Tony Awards in 2006.

The Drowsy Chaperone will be performed on Thursday May 12, Saturday May
14, Monday May 16, and Tuesday May 17 beginning at 7:00.