Members of Revere Players are rehearsing for the fall play, Check Please, and the construction crew is building sets for the stage in the new auditorium.

Check Please is a comedy written about a series of blind dates gone wrong. Seniors, John Scheetz and Katie Froelich have been in players since sixth grade, and play the leads in the play this year. They are also co-presidents of Revere Players. Scheetz will take the role of guy three and Eddie, and Froelich will take the role of girl one.

Most construction of the school is finished, and Revere Players are now adapting to the new auditorium and stage. Scheetz explains the pros and cons of the new stage.

“The stage itself is a lot smaller, so we don’t have as much room to work with; which is good and bad because you don’t have to fill up all the space, but also you can’t do as big things as last time,” Scheetz said.

Along with the stage differences, The tech booth, which is where the lighting and sound is managed, is on the floor,unlike the old school’s balcony. Assistant director of the fall play, Laurie Russell, spoke on the new booth.

“The tech booth is down on the floor, which is a much better place for it to be. [The tech booth] also talks to the dressing rooms which is so nice, because then the kids know when their scenes are coming up and how soon they have to be out here. So the technology is definitely a step above our old facility,” Russell said.
Rena Baker, director of Check Please, has been part of the Revere Players for 21 years, and explained how leaving the old high school affected her.

“I’d say it’s similar to you [living] in your house, you grew up there with your kids and they grew up in that house, and you have so many great memories; but then things are going really well, and you’re building a brand new home, but it’s so hard to leave,” Baker said.

Along with the adaption of the new auditorium, a scene shop for the crew to build sets and props was created. Robert Pierson, art teacher at Revere as well as Drama Director for the players, explains the upgrade.

“[In the last high school], a lot of the tools were [in] a glorified storage closet, where now this theater has a real scene shop. [There’s] a garage door with plenty of space to build and work, and stuff can be built in the scene shop and rolled through the garage doors directly onto the stage, that’s a big difference,” Pierson said.

Along with the new carpentry area, Pierson, as well as the crew, have to work from the ground up with sets and props. Since the auditorium is not completely finished yet, the crew cannot use backdrops this year. Pierson explained his ideas on the set for the fall play.

“I’m building two of these L-shaped walls, one wall will very likely be an Italian restaurant and then on the other side it might be a coffee shop. Mrs. Baker wants three different scenes so there will be two of these, and one will be blank on the other side. These will be on wheels, we will wheel them out, and you can turn it around,” Pierson said.
The students are also figuring out how to put on the play in the middle of a pandemic. Baker explains her reasoning for why she chose this play in particular due to the situation we are currently in.

“If I have to perform on zoom, what shows can I do that with? So it had to be not a lot of traveling across the stage, not a lot of drama like last year; it had to be seated. The other reason was because I think we all need to laugh right now,” Baker said.

Along with the live performances, practices are also Covid-19 friendly. Froelich explains how players follow social distance protocols during these practices.

“We all distance in the auditorium, every other row at least, and at least two seats between you and other people. It’s usually two people on stage at a time, and we’re all masked up and distancing. You’re allowed to take your mask off when you’re on stage, that’s what most performers do, but you’re still distancing on stage so it’s still safe for Covid-19,” Froelich said.

All tickets will be sold online this year, and if anyone is not able to make it, or is worried about the virus, there is also an online viewing option. Froelich explained how the viewing works.

“Basically you will purchase your tickets [online], and [choose] if you want to be here, in person, or online. We will release it to the public after having it with our students for a little while, then if you wanted streaming, you would pay 20 or 25 dollars, and get the rights to watch it for one night, but you can have as many people as you want. The opportunities are really endless,” Froelich said.

Due to the current situation, the Revere Players will have five shows on November 18th through 22nd, with only 100 audience members, and a 15 percent capacity present at each show.