When you walk into the small auditorium during Mrs. Austin’s classes or during after school theatre performances, you will see students rehearsing their lines and practicing for their plays. These students take pride in becoming one with the character they are portraying. This past Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday THS Theatre students hit the stage to perform their play, “Marvin’s Room”.

Marvin’s room has a deep, enlightening plotline and students were excited to preform this drama.

“Marvin’s Room is about a man named Marvin who has had multiple strokes. He relies very heavily on his family to take care of him. You don’t actually see him in the play. He’s just presumed to be there. He has two daughters, Bessie and Lee,” Mckenzie Wright said.

Bessie and Lee don’t have a usual sister relationship. They butt heads a lot, but in the end come together to help Bessie.

“[Bessie] has stayed kind of behind to take care of her ailing aunt and her father. Now she’s is diagnosed with leukemia. So she has to contact her estranged sister and nephews to see if they are compatible for a bone marrow transplant,” teacher/director Allana Austin said.

This intense heavy drama had emotional connections for everyone.

“I think the moral of the show is to make every moment count. Even if you don’t have a good relationship with someone. Make your time with them actually count,” Kylie Byars, who plays Charlotte, a psychiatrist, said.

While Marvin’s Room was being read just for fun in class, Mrs.Austin and students grew a connnection.

“I was a fan when they made it into a movie back in the 90s. It won the Drama Desk Award, the year it came out. So its a pretty well written play,” Austin said.

In 2011, the THS Theatre Department performed the play. Last year the students read the script in class and asked to perform this play.

Before this play was able to be performed, the students had to practices after school.

“We have been rehearsing relentlessly for seven weeks,” Byars said.

“We’ve been working really hard with each other and trying to understand the plot of the show and how to really tell the story in an innovative and great way,” Byars said.

The student’s have put in a lot of effort to make Marvin’s Room possible.

“They’ve memorized their lines. They’ve gathered their own costumes. They built their own set.

“We have rehearsals after school, we’ve been talking about relationships, and the feelings each of the characters are going through,” Austin said.

As the students have rehearsed for a long period of time, everyone including the cast and Mrs. Austin, are ready to perform this play on opening night.

“I’m excited to be able to tell a story that I can relate to. I picked the role that I have because it has very special emotional meaning to me,” Wright said.

Cast member, Brodie King, feels prepared for opening night.

“I think set and cast have been working a lot on trying to perfect it. I think we have enough for tonight’s performance.” King said.

The students performed the play “Clue” on September 22 and 23. Marvin’s Room is the second play performed this school year.

“I get excited every single year because, we just did “Clue”. It was a lot of running around, comedy, big laughs and energetic. The students did so well with it, and the audience loved it. We’re going to switch directly to a heavy drama. I get excited about how talented the students are and how they can jump from a comedy to a drama. The performances are awesome. I just like showcasing that kind of talent in the students,” Austin said.

Opening night was performed on Thursday, November 10, 2022.

“It went great. We had a couple of technical difficulties, but the actors brought all the emotion and had the audience in the palm of their hands,” Austin said.

This night brought a lot of sentimental reactions from the crowd.

“I think it was really good. I felt some raw emotions from everyone. Everyone put their best foot forward and it was nice,” Isabella Jones said.

Being able to finish this performance gives students a break before the next performance coming up. The next play to be performed is “Bum Rush”. It is stated to show in Feburary and students will start practice in early Janurary.