The final show of the year is an adaptation of novelist Jane Austen’s banger! Poster courtesy of junior Flannery Clausen.
San Luis Obispo High School Performing Arts Company is putting together their final production of the year, and sophomore Charlotte Beck is directing “Sense and Sensibility” based on the 1811 Jane Austen novel by the same name.
SLOHS has a tradition of running at least one student-led production each year, it is run and directed completely by students with the exception of English teacher and artistic director Noelle Eben. In the past few years, SLOHS PAC has directed two a year, with one production being the “24-Hour Musical”, at the beginning of the year, where students blindly audition for a musical, and learn what show they are doing once it is cast, then spend friday night, and the majority of Saturday learning an entire show, and performing it saturday night.
Beck’s production is following the president of SLOHS PAC and senior Lindsay Smith’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing” last year, which was unfortunately canceled due to COVID-19.
“There was a chance that one wasn’t going to happen this year, but I really wanted it to be something successful and we could make it happen,” said Beck.
The first step to producing a show was Beck submitting an application to direct. She had to create a rehearsal schedule, find other students to join her creative team, explain why this show is important to do at SLOHS, and then hold auditions.
“We basically started right away. We created blocking plans, costume plots, tech forms and got the right to a script.” said junior Emily Sincoff.
Auditioning is an interesting process, and even more difficult when several of the people who auditioned are close friends to Beck and her assistant director Emily Sincoff. After two days of auditions, they held “Call Backs” which essentially means some people had to audition twice, so the directors could decide who best fit the leading roles.
Currently the cast is rehearsing three days a week.
“Later we will be rehearsing five days a week, for multiple hours every day,” said Beck.
The team holds creative meetings along the way to re-group and come up with new things to incorporate into the production.
There will be two performances held, May 19 and 20, at seven P.M.
“It’s going to be a really fun and really interesting show,” said Beck.
These two showings will be the product of months of hard work and dedication and the final production of the 2022 – 2023 school year.
Source: slohsdrama.com