Stagecraft Shines in Middle School Play

logo-w-sunburstKayla Desroches/KMXT

The Kodiak Middle School will invite some celestial beings to the Gerald C Wilson Auditorium drama pod next week.

Students will be performing Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” a novel about siblings who go searching for their kidnapped father. But this kidnapping involves help from otherworldly creatures and frequent planet hopping.

Needless to say, it’s not the easiest stage adaptation, but it has been done many times before.

Director Jared Griffin says Wrinkle in Time performances need to get creative behind the scenes.

“There aren’t a lot of set pieces, which means that lighting is extremely important. So, a lot of different colors with lighting, different speeds, lasers, those kinds of things to kinda indicate when they’re traveling.”

It’s an opportunity for techy students to strut their stuff, since they’ll be manning the lights and therefore responsible for much of the performance.

Griffin says they’ll use both lighting and costumes to depict the tentacled beasts on one planet the siblings visit.

“I’ve got middle schoolers using stilts and extended arms, but with these animals, whenever they have a change in emotion, the color changes, so we have to use a lot of focus lights, so again very limited in the drama pod, but as best as we can do.”

He says in the next two weeks the students will be putting the finishing touches on set pieces, choosing costumes, and arranging the lighting scheme.

The play only runs twice: next Friday at 7 p.m. and next Saturday at 2 p.m. in the drama pod.

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