By Jackie Ruiz, Editor
If you like watching heavy and heartfelt moments on stage,“All Quiet on the Western Front” might be your cup of tea.
Senior High students will be performing “All Quiet on the Western Front” on October 6, 7, and 9 in the school auditorium. Tickets will be five dollars each for adults and will be free of charge for students who bring their IDs.
“All Quiet on the Western Front ” was adapted by Matt Fost from a novel written after World War One by Erich Maria Remarque. It tells a story of a group of German soldiers who enlist in World War One after being convinced by slogans and patriotism.
Jayden Adams, who plays Paul Baumer, is the narrator and main character in the play. The story centers around him and his experiences as he fights in the trenches and faces danger.
“The soldiers change due to the conflicts and struggles they face. They learn how to adapt to their situations,” said drama teacher Gary Alexander who has been teaching at GISH for two years.
Alexander mentioned that he wants both students and audience members to appreciate what military personnel experience and what they go through during war.
Casting auditions were held August 17 and 18. All students who auditioned for the play, 38 in total, are able to participate and fill all of the character roles. On top of that, another 15-20 students are in the band.
“We have been trying to publicize the play as much as we can because we want everyone to come. We’re going to try and do a lot of advertising campaigns this year because we want our plays to be bigger,” he said.
He added that the play is intended for mature audiences and is filled with many heart–wrenching moments.
“It is more of an artistic representation instead of a family friendly play, so we want to let the audience know that once the curtain goes up there will be death and action scenes,” he said.
Alexander added that their inspiration came from a video they watched in class that contained dance choreography using colored powder. Colored powder is a combination of baby powder with colored dye added to it.
“Last year Kayden Renolds did a play using this powder and we want to use it to simulate gun fire,” he said, “We liked that the choreography was something that the students could do themselves and teach each other.”
For future reference, Alexander said that they wanted students to start taking the lead and write their own plays for Senior High.
He explained that they want to be able to have students running the lights and sound, have a student teaching others the choreography sequences, and have another student writing the music for the plays.
“We want to avoid hiring professionals so that it is more student driven. It makes students more invested and proud of what they did,” he said.
Junior Kevin Para Vasquez and Senior Charles Phillip wrote three songs that will be featured during the performance.
“So far we have only finished one of the three pieces. We have an outline on what we want them to sound like but haven’t finished since we’ve gotten busier,” Vasquez said.
He added that the first piece of music is called “The First Battle.” The second piece is called “The Waltz” and the third piece, which is the opener, has no name yet.
“I’m most excited for ‘The First Battle’ because there are a lot of moving parts in it and it will be an action scene,” he said.
The audience will mainly hear guitar and bass instruments in the background of the play.
“When I talked to Alexander, he wanted a more modern rock sound so that we can get the audience more interested,” Vasquez said.
Alexander said he hopes many people attend the show and realize “wow this is what being a soldier in the war entails.”
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