The Fox High School Theatre Troupe has found a way to continue performing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, again.
The troupe has gone online to entertain audiences with two plays during the holiday season.
The Troupe’s first fall play, “Spoon River Anthology,” has been available to order and view online since Nov. 25, and a second play, “It’s A Wonderful Life: Radio Play Version,” is expected to be available Dec. 14, said Fox High teacher Sam Meyer, who is co-directing the troupe, along with teacher Holland Doherty.
In May, Fox High theater students performed a play called “10 Ways to Survive Life in A Quarantine” that was available online.
“The one catch phrase high school theatre teachers I know are using is, ‘The show must go on ... line,’” Meyer said. “We love working with these kids. They are fantastic. They are intelligent, creative and hardworking. These kids deserve a chance to (perform) somehow this year.
“We wanted to find a way to keep everyone safe, while keeping theatre in their lives. Until we can see everyone back at Rickman (Auditorium), we will see them online.”
To view the holiday performances, an order sheet must be filled out on the theatre troupe’s page on the Fox High School website at foxhs.fox.k12.mo.us/clubs__activities/theatre_troupe.
An online payment tab will direct you to a link to fill out an order form. It costs $20 to access the online play, but the troupe asks those who order to pay $10 for each person they expect to view the performance.
It cost the troupe $625 to secure the rights to stream both plays, according to the group’s website.
After placing an order, it could take up to 24 hours for someone to receive an email with a link to Meyer’s school Google Drive account.
Meyer said the performance cannot be downloaded, copied or shared from his Google Drive, but those who purchase access may watch the play as many times as they want.
“I wanted to release the plays during (the Thanksgiving and Christmas) breaks,” Meyer said. “That way when students have time off, they can watch it with their parents.”
The Fox C-6 School district’s Christmas break runs from Dec. 21 through Jan. 1.
Spoon River Anthology
“Spoon River Anthology,” written by Edgar Lee Masters, is a collection of short, free-verse poems that narrate the epitaphs of residents from Spoon River, a fictional small midwestern town. It was first published in 1915 and was recently adapted into a one-act online play that lasts just more than 30 minutes.
The cast includes Fox High juniors Lydia McCameron-Bennett, Ollie Wajda, Alyx Fischer and Alyx Fischer; sophomore Aidan Gildehaus; and freshmen Rachel Rushman, Ella Myers and Sarah Monroe. Doherty directed the play.
“I am really proud of the students,” Meyer said.
“They worked hard and rose to the occasion. They adapted their skills to performing online instead of on stage.”
Meyer said Doherty decided to have every actor continually be on screen during the performance, creating a tombstone-lined-cemetery effect for the play.
It’s A Wonderful Life:
Radio Play Version
This version of the 1946 Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” was published in 2006. The play portrays a 1940s radio broadcast telling the story of idealistic George Bailey as he considers ending his life on Christmas Eve.
“There are a lot of companies that perform this version like they are in a radio studio,” said Meyer, who directs the play. “I thought our audience would like it better if it looked more like the movie.”
The final casting for the play was not complete as of Nov. 27, Meyer said.
However, he said several students are expected to perform in the production, including juniors Delaney Roehrs, Isa Rogers, Lauren Werner and Vincent Adams; sophomores Emma Klein, Zoe Simonds, Dominic Deutschmann and Mason Klotz; and freshmen Peyton Kraus and Meagan Stengel.
For both socially distanced productions, students will perform from their homes using the Zoom online videoconference platform.
Prior to the performances, students pick up their costumes at set times or they are delivered to their homes, Meyer said.