Thespian Society [ArticleImageHyperLink] Tuesday, May 22, 2012 By Emily Fishman Advertising Many students at Port Angeles High School have no idea how the Thespian Society at our school works, who is in it, or which plays the members are performing each year. Some students may not even know there is a Thespian Club at the school. I sat down with an officer in the club, Hope Chamberlin (11) to discuss her experience in the club, its members, and the plays they are performing this year. Question: When did you start acting in plays and how many have you been in? Answer: “I’ve been acting in drama since I was six years old when I did Wizard of Oz. The upcoming play that Thespian Society is putting on in May will be my sixth at the high school, and beyond that I’ve done three with PALOA– Oliver, Wizard of Oz, and I’m working on South Pacific right now, three with Community Playhouse– Meet Me in St. Louis, Wait Until the Blackout, and Murder on the Nile. and one with Missoula Children’s Theatre.” Q: Does Thespian Society do other things besides plays? A: “Thespian Society’s main duty is to organize and put on the plays, as well as to have class time meetings to get out more into the school. We also do some community service projects. We’re organizing some things with the animal shelter right now, we’re going to go in there and help with ground keeping and animal care.” Q: What is your role in the club? A: “I do a lot, partly because I’m an officer and partly because I’m really a theater person. My group of friends, the community that I’m in outside the school is primarily theater based so I spend most of my time either at rehearsals or working on lines.” Q: What is the difference between Thespian Society and the club? A: “The difference between thespian society itself and the club that meets here, at the high school, is that the club is specifically for the running of the plays, making sure we have advertisements put out and everything, whereas people who are acting in the plays might just be a character and not really involved with the administration part of it.” Q: How many plays does Thespian Society offer each year? A: “We [the Thespian Society] generally do a comedy for the winter play and a drama/tragedy for the spring play, two per year.” Q: How often does the club meet? A: “We met during this past summer for As You Like It since it was Shakespeare and it was more work, but we generally meet just during the school year. Most of the time we are rehearsing three times a week for about two hours, but then when we get to the last couple weeks before performance we’re generally there every night rehearsing until we’re finished with whatever we’re doing – we could be there until about 9 or 9:30 every night.” Q: How many performances of each play are there? A: “We usually have five performances of each play and in between plays we’ll do things not related to the running of the plays, more about the club itself like trying to arrange a workshop with PALOA or community service projects.” Q: How does membership work in Thespian Society? Can anyone join? A: “Membership in Thespian Society is always really small but there are always people onstage who aren’t really club members, they just want to be in the play or they might be working towards membership. There are members of the club and then there are people who aren’t members or who are working towards membership who can still participate in plays. The club itself takes everyone who has been in at least two plays one of which has Thespian Society to be under the director here at the high school, Kelly Lovall.” Q: How is Thespian Society run? A: “Thespian society is student run and we take students who don’t go to Port Angeles High School, we have people from Lincoln, you are eligible if you’re a home schooler, and right now we have people from the middle schools because they’re playing children in our production.” Q: Do people have to audition? A: “You do have to audition for our plays, but sometimes the local theatre groups will fall into pre-casting habits, which is partly because people like to be with their friends and partly because with theatre you have to be able to really rely on the other person –if the lead drops out a week before everybody is in trouble, so partly to make sure there are people in the big parts who can be relied on. Sometimes you’ll be pre-cast or they’ll ask you to come try out for a part, but generally you just audition and read for whatever part the person running the auditions thinks you’ll do well in.”

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