I don’t think any of us realized that Coronavirus would become such a problem that our favorite activities would have to be terminated. On March 12, 2020, the Northview Theatre Department was forced to meet and discuss a tough decision.
Earlier in the day, the governor of Ohio announced that school would not be in session for the next three weeks due to the outbreak. This is to help contain the virus and keep other students from getting sick.
I’m sure every high school student was celebrating as soon as they found out about the new plans. I was with a few of my friends and audibly gasped before cheering. However, I then asked myself how this was going to affect my plans for the next month.
The spring play, Boeing Boeing, was supposed to open on April 16. After weeks of auditions and callbacks and a month of rehearsal, the theatre department has been working hard on their production.
One of the biggest aspects of this show is the accents. Each character has a different origin, and we all had to work on our dialect. I play an American and am required to attempt a New York accent, whereas others have to learn how to sound German, Italian, and French. Even the foreign exchange students that are participating have had to work on their English.
Everyone was devastated when we found out that it was unlikely that we would be able to rehearse during the next three weeks. This is incredibly unfortunate because the day we come back from our extended spring break would be tech week, also known as mock production week.
We decided that there would be no possible way for us to put on a show with only one week left of rehearsal. So, we came to the conclusion that we would either have to postpone the show to a later date, or cancel it forever. The directors are still working on a final decision, but this is one of the toughest things that a theatre student can deal with.
Months of working hard on something that you were looking forward to for so long is so disappointing. We can only hope that the production comes together in order to satisfy the current cast and crew.
