By: Arianna Alvarez, Staff Writer
Mills Drama is starting off the new school year with the classic: Sense and Sensibility! The play centers around two sisters whose lives are turned upside down when their father passes away suddenly, leaving them penniless and with reputations at stake.
One of the lead members of the play is a sophomore, Niyah, “I really love my role in the play because my character is super expressive and has a very big personality, which makes it really fun to portray.”
She shared that one thing she likes about the play is how engaging the storyline is. “There is so much romance and drama, and so many plot twists, and it is just a really fun and engaging play.”
Underclassmen Olive Aguilar (10) plays the family doctor in Sense and Sensibility. One of the parts she is most excited about is insulting the mom of the play. Olive has experienced being a part of a play due to taking drama all three years of middle school.
She shared that there is a lot of miscommunication during the play, which makes it funny to her. Overall, he exclaims that she is excited about everything and shares that the casting for the play is excellent, and the actors play the roles very well.
Another actor in Sense and Sensibility is underclassman Scott (10). They play one of the gossipers and share that they are also excited to be in Sense and Sensibility. They said, “They’re glad they have the opportunity to be in it, and they’re excited to be a part of the production.”
Scott also shared that the actors have good chemistry and work well to make the scenes feel natural.
While the actors play a significant part in the production of the play, you cannot exclude the hardworking members of the stage crew. Assistant stage manager Michelle Yeung (11) explained that her main job is mainly making call cues, sign-ups, and going through them to assign new jobs—for example, sound and lighting managers, ASMs, runners, set builders, etc.
Michelle must also keep track of everyone’s skills and schedules to do crew work. In the process, they build the sets and design music, sound, and lighting cues, which get recorded on scripts.
Michelle said that the skills you need to be a stage manager are to combine solid organizational abilities, effective communication, and composure under pressure. She also thinks that being a part of the crew is a delightful experience and would love for more students to get involved.
The cast has been practicing hard during every rehearsal to ensure the final day is perfect. They are all super excited to show off their skills as they play in Sense and Sensibility from October 27-28.
