As the fall play comes to an end, everyone is wondering how the students put on such an amazing performance. With hours of practice and teacher Mr. Troy Harvey as the director at Catholic Central, it’s a big responsibility and requires self-discipline to put in the time needed to make the play great. We asked senior Lyndsey Bandlow and junior Lilly Tanis about their time participating in the play and the news is here!
The play is about a guy named Elwood who has an imaginary friend that only he can see. He is a 6 foot tall rabbit. His family doesn’t like that and tries to put him in a sanitarium, but confusion happens when his sister is also sent to the sanitarium.
When asked her favorite part about the play, Lyndsey Bandlow ‘26 said, “I play the character Elwood. He is a pleasant guy and getting to play him was nice because he was happy and a chill person all the time.” Lyndsey said scheduling is the most complicated thing about working with so many people. She said, “scheduling is one of the hardest parts because most people that do theater are also involved in choir and band, so sometimes they can’t come to rehearsal.” When asked about her hardest lines to memorize, she said, “the hardest part about my lines in the play is that there is one scene where I had to read two full pages and it took a long time to memorize. Theater is my passion and I want to do it when I graduate and being part of this program is what motivates me.”
Lilly Tanis ’27 as Veta Simmons said, “working with so many people can be challenging to fit everybody’s sense of humor.” When asked about her favorite part about the play Lilly said, “I love how funny all the lines are, there are so many ways to sneak a funny line that can get a good laugh out of everyone.” Lilly Tanis explained, “small lines were harder for me because even though long lines are hard to remember, short lines have so many ways to change them in your head and then they get mixed up.” What motivates Lilly is “being able to create a story with your peers and having a great time, knowing that you’re doing something that you love and bringing the audience entertainment is what motivates me.” In the future, Lilly said, “I hope to be able to act for a small theater community and hopefully work my way up to maybe Broadway GR which does a lot for Grand Rapids.”
If you are interested in participating in a play at Catholic Central, there will be the Addam’s Family musical in the spring.
