The Highland Park Drama Club has made history by achieving record highs in ticket sales for the fall play, Alice in Wonderland, the winter one acts festival Channel Surfing, and the spring musical Newsies. In May, the club was even recognized in an NJ.com article by Scott Cronick for its exceptional musical production.
While the 2022-2023 season has established high expectations for the upcoming 2023-2024 year, it has also set the stage (pun intended) for future achievements. The funds from ticket sales are now available for the club to purchase costumes, props, lighting, and set-building materials to ensure the high production quality of upcoming shows.
This fall, the HP Drama Club will be producing Puffs, a parody of the Harry Potter series that can make anyone laugh, regardless of whether or not they are a fan of the franchise. The spring musical Footloose is a fun but meaningful story of a teen boy who stirs up trouble in a town where dancing is illegal. The one acts festival will close off the year in mid-May, providing the opportunity for students to present original plays.
The Drama Club not only puts on shows but maintains a chapter of the International Thespian Society. Among the four newly elected ITS cabinet members, Kai Stevens, Roy Crosbie, Andrew Dalton, and Sam Milsted, three of the four represent the large group of rising seniors the club has come to rely on. The stage manager Haia Elmoghani, head of set building John Bilton, head of costume design Kaya Sukhdeo, co-head of property design Isabella de la Cruz, and actors Mac Jones and Rory Gibney-Krashen are only some of the other prominent drama club members in the class of 2024. The ITS cabinet has set its goal for the coming year to build a legacy of positivity and inclusion for the thespians who come after them.
The initiatives of the class of 2024 extend beyond the school. Their collaboration with director Tova Halpern of Fresh Theatre Arts and music director Keith Presty have led to the creation of a new, non-HPHS affiliated summer program in which teens can explore theatre without school censorship. This summer, the brand-new Highland Park Teen Theatre Company, open to all teenagers in New Jersey, will put on a production of Heathers the Musical: Teen Edition on August 6 at 5:00 PM in the Highland Park High School auditorium.
If you are interested in being a part of HP Drama Club history in the coming school year, talk to any of the ITS cabinet members or stop by the interest meeting in September.