The IB and intermediate drama classes put on a series of shows Feb. 21-22, and made a beautiful display of the talent that lies in the drama department.

The performance was split into two sections. In the beginning section, the first year and second year IB students performed in four separate groups, which were put together based on the strengths of each student. The students had about two months to create their production.

All of the IB performances were derived, meaning put together from scratch, by the students. Each group had a starting point such as a poem, a painting, or piece of music, for example. From there they developed scripts, movements, lighting, costumes, set and other aspects that go into their performance.

The IB SL groups performed first. “Guilt” by students Jess Orkin, Josh Bransford, Dustin Jorgenson, and London Mahaley is about a couple seeking refuge from their past mistakes and taking to the woods. Once there, they discover they can’t run away from the past and need to confront it.

“The performance went surprisingly well,” said Orkin. “We were worried that we wouldn’t be ready in time, but we worked really hard and pulled through.”

One of the other first year performances was called “The Defective Infected Detectives: The Case of the Count’s Killer.” Nate Davis, Tucker Hoffman, Abigail Kemper, Shayla Lockhart, and Ella Stout put together the piece. The story is about two guys who pretend to be detectives so that they can pick up girls. The “detectives” get wrapped up in a murder case that is left for them to solve. Some of the challenges with the performance were that ideas clashed and there wasn’t a lot of time to rehearse.

“I feel great about the performance. I think we had a good piece and more importantly, we had a blast performing,” said Hoffman.

The other SL performance was called “The Loveless Life,” and Sydian Mikesell, Lily Bouler, Cayden Cummings, Della Cosloy, and Abby Fonseca collaborated to bring the story to life. One interesting aspect of “The Loveless Life” was that there was no dialogue in the performance. This was an extra challenge for the group because they had to make sure their timing and speed was perfect. The group also faced challenges in working cohesively with people they didn’t know that well.

“As an actor you not only have to be creative and good at acting, you also have to know how to work with other people and that can be the hardest part sometimes, but it’s important,” said Mikesell.

Tom Beckett, the drama teacher, said, “The first year students had a lot of struggles in their pieces and that’s good because they were ambitious. That just means that next year, I’m so excited to see what they come up with because not only do they have a great model, they also had these experiences of how not to do things.”

The second year students, who were testing, performed and crafted “Blossom.” Seniors Julia Rehmann, Anna Christen, Sophie Friedenwald-Fishman, Anne Marie Powell, and Gia Siebenaler put on an amazing show. “The second year student piece was so incredibly strong,” said Beckett. “I mean it was one of the strongest I’ve ever seen. It was emotionally compelling, well structured. It had multimedia and they had really done the work to make a piece that I would put on any stage.”

“Blossom” is about a woman and her journey through grief after the loss of her childhood best friend. The piece explores how memory plays in the journey of grief to acceptance. Individuals had to work on letting go of certain ideas in favor of what the group wanted and the group worked on making sure all the ideas were cohesive.

“I thought our group worked really well together and we put a lot of love and care into the play, and I think that showed in the final product,” said Rehmann.  

The second section of “Spiritus Scriptorum” was a show put on by the entire intermediate drama class called “Scribble Face and the Orb of Ultimate Power.” The piece was set in a fantasy world and included references from Mortal Kombat, to Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter. The story followed the journey of Dungeons and Dragons tropes as they disturb and disrupt the lives of the forest dwellers like goblins. There is a happy ending where everyone comes together to show the strength and goodness in getting along with everyone. Beckett wrote an outline for the class, and the students pitched in their own ideas and even used improv on stage to add to the play, like Teague O’Hara adding a line to the end that left the crowd in laughter.  

“Everybody owned a piece of that show,” said Beckett.

At “Spiritus Scriptorum,” the same could be said of all the performances.