The spring play in BHS, “Kodachrome”, has begun production through casting actors and gathering their backstage crew and light members. “Kodachrome” will be available to view on Feb. 20 and 21, costing $8 per ticket for students and adults. “Kodachrome” has many members working to bring it to life, including director Abbe Lane, who initially chose to produce “Kodachrome”.
“I saw a production of it this past year that inspired me to select it for our school. I adore the writing style and I find that it’s different from plays we ‘normally’ see,” Lane said. “Much like last year’s play, ‘Almost, Maine’, ‘Kodachrome’ is, at its heart, a story of love. We see many couples fall in love, break up, and get back together in this show. But, the true story is about the grief associated with life changes and learning to deal with those situations in our own time.”
The biggest struggle Lane faced while casting for “Kodachrome” was the small number of roles compared to the large number of students that auditioned.
“This is the first time there were more students auditioning than there were parts in the show. While it is hard to not cast everyone, it’s so exciting to watch the excitement for theater at BHS grow,” Lane said. “There are 13 students in the cast, but close to 20 auditioned.”
One of these students includes junior Garrett Lundt, who has participated in past plays in the backstage crew. This is his first year playing an acting role.
“I wanted to try out for the play because I thought it would be a fun thing to do,” Lundt said. “I saw people doing stuff like the musical, but I can’t sing, so I figured I’d try out for the play.”
Another student participating in the play is senior Aleea Lichtenberg, who has also performed in past productions from BHS.
“I initially auditioned for the role of the photographer and that is the role I received. I myself find art in my photography and found a lot of similarities between myself and her,” Lichtenberg said. “I knew I would be able to portray her the way it was intended. Being able to connect to the character you play is vital in theater and right from the start I could understand her feelings.”
A big priority actors face, especially with big roles, is memorizing and reciting lines properly. Luckily, there are multiple different tricks actors can use to memorize their lines.
“I have an insane amount of lines,” Lichtenberg said. “My character narrates the story and frequently gives monologues. Preparing for my role involves listening to audio recordings I made of me reading my lines, and reading my script at every given opportunity.”
In order to properly direct the play, Lane takes a more hands-off approach; she lets actors grow into their roles and see what they become.
“I want them to make character and blocking choices that feel right to them. I will give them the basic outline of what I want the scene to look like, and then let them loose,” Lane said. “I do stop them and redirect some choices, but for the most part, they are making a lot of decisions themselves. To me, the act of producing theater is a collaborative process. I never want to stifle their excitement or ideas for a character/scene/set design. That’s what makes the show come alive. Investing in the show is just as important as performing it.”