playbill vip

A Note from Director, Mrs. Therese Hartz

Last year, Ms. Lindsey McDermott and I launched HAST Theatre and put on two fabulous shows: Antigone Now and Divided We Fall. We were two weeks into rehearsal of our Spring Comedy, Sally Cotter and the Censored Stone, when COVID-19 shut down life as we knew it. McDermott and I, like many, hoped that everything would blow over by the time of the next school year, but that was not the case. So we got to thinking. How do we keep theatre alive in an era where group gatherings are not allowed and school is virtual? Then, McDermott came up with a stroke of genius - a radio show! What if we performed The Crucible in the style of a 1920’s radio drama, with music and foley effects? Once we figured out how we could make it work, we got to work.

Putting on a show in the time of COVID has had its challenges: rehearsals over Google Meet, reading on PDFs of the scripts until the cast was able to come to school to grab them, tech working from home and submitting sound effects and promotions over Google Classroom, sound equipment not working, and the complications of how to get everyone safety in a room to record. But our cast and crew rose to the challenge and have put on a wonderful production.

To our student cast - Kealeigh, Sarah, Cara, and Julia, I would like to say thank you. Having a six person, all-female cast to fill twenty roles is not easy, but you made it look effortless. You created wonderful voicings and personalities for each of your characters that made the show feel like a full cast. Thank you for working through technical difficulties with internet connections, Google Meets, and sound equipment. You never complained. You rolled with the punches and kept working. Working with this cast has been an absolute delight, and it makes me horribly sad that you all are seniors. 

A HUGE thank you to Mr. Kevin Smith and Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. for allowing us to record our show at the Left of Center Podcast Studio in Munster. Thank you to HAST Administration for supporting our theatrical endeavors. Thank you to Mrs. Elizabeth Burton for teaching this classic every year and for teaching it as we rehearsed (it helped our cast so much). Thank you to Ms. Lindsey McDermott for being the best friend and co-director I would ever dream to work with. Thank you to my husband who listened to me scream as Reverend Samuel Parris and never complained once. 

I am extremely grateful and proud to be back “in the theatre” and for you to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Enjoy and learn from the cautionary tale of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.