playbill vip

Ridgewood High School District 234 Board of Education, Jennifer Kelsall, Tim Keeley, John Bolger, Mavis Netterstrom, Kevin Szaflik, Sarah Machaj, Thomas Parrillo, Megan Cantos, RHS Student Council, Steve Klaus, Brian Collier, Collen Poul, Patrick Poul, Pat Rossi & the entire RHS Maintaince & Custodial Staff, Margaret Schmidt, Colette Scaletta, Barabar Slack, Judy Spychalski, Betsy Steinhort, Mary Bruscato, Spotlight Youth Theatre Oak Park, Marge Molica, Sait Viator High School, Kate Costello, Dave Wlodarczyk

Director's Note

I have to credit one of our Thespians, Francis Parent, for reminding me last year about this show.  It's one that somehow had lodged itslef into my brain well over a decade ago when a beloved colleague of mine, Gregory Chew, had mentioned it as a show he highly recommended.  I remember looking over at Greg, one eyebrow rasied, and most likely had something along the lines of, "Really?"  But he insisted that it was a perfect show for small high school and that his students had a wonderful time producing it.  Unfortuantely, Greg passed away earlier this year.  We lost a great friend, a great theatre mind, and a great teacher who was enthusiastic about theatre, his students, and even shows like Zombie Prom.  It's because he saw and recognized potential.  So when Franny suggesting this show I could think of nothing better than honoring a dear friend than by producing a show he had once lauded and suggested to me.

Beyond the reasons for us producing Zombie Prom, is the very message of the show itself.  Again, another reason why Greg so loved this show, is its underlying message of love and understanding.  On the surface, a young girl is under presure not to date a boy because he's "different."  At first this appears to be another retelling of boy-meets-girl-boy loses girl - boy gets girl back tale of forbiddend love.  But what makes this show so unique - besides it being about a Zombie of course - is that it turns it into a story about others not accepting that a normal teenage girl should be with a not-so-normal-back-from-the-dead Zombie.  When you examine this in the context of our society today, or even yesterday, it makes a subtle comment what our scociety deems "normal" or "acceptable."  It seems everything can indeed warp when your boyfriend is a courpse!

Mr. J. Smith