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This year on November 2nd through the 5th, the Fair Grove High School theater department put on the production of The Outsiders. The play was an adaptation of the book written by S. E. Hinton.
Leroy Barker, the director of the theater department, stated, “I think the play was an overall success. There were certainly some differences between some of the themes in the book, movie, and play. Each medium has different tools available for presenting the author’s ideas. Many of us always want to see everything from the book in the movie, but movies just don’t have the time available.”
Barker continued, “We also would like to see some of the visual appeal of the movie in our stage performances, but don’t have the magic of camera angles. I believe that our Student Director, Addie Zittle, did a great job of creating a show that was consistent and specific to our students.”
Cheyenne Todd (9), who played as Johnny Cade, said, “I enjoyed working with my friends in the play. I’m really good friends with almost everyone that I worked with, so getting to spend even more time with them was an amazing opportunity and experience.”
Nico Jenkins (12), who played as Ponyboy Curtis, stated, “It was so much fun getting to do a dramatic play for the community. The rehearsals were so much fun because the cast got to spend a lot of time connecting with each other.”
Barker commented, “Our opening night was not our biggest night. This is often the case as people are more eager to attend Friday night events than Thursday night ones. I was concerned that our Friday night would struggle as it was up against several other Fair Grove events, but I was pleasantly surprised.”
Barker explained, “We sold out of our 42 dinner seats for Friday night and sold many general admission bleacher tickets for that night as well. Our overall sales were above what we expected and I believe moving the Dinner Theatre to the fall was a good decision.”
The theater department has much more in store for us later in the year. Jenkins stated, “I’m excited for our spring musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, because it has been over a year since our last musical and I have missed the difference in atmosphere between a musical and a play.”
“I’m excited to keep working with my peers in future productions. The group that I work with are people that I would gladly spend every day with, and I’m so excited to see what else this community, and group has to offer,” said Todd
The middle school theater department is putting on their production of An Absolutely True Story (As Told by a Bunch of Lying Liars) on December 6 and 7. Then later in the spring the high school theater department will be putting on their musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
