This year the Camas High School drama department is putting on a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Rehearsals started back in January of 2019, and the whole cast and crew have been working tirelessly to get this show on its feet and ready to perform. Through hours of rehearsals throughout the week and costume and set construction on Saturdays, this show is slowly but surely coming together.
Though, they have run into a large obstacle in the past few weeks. This obstacle was the weather. All of the snow days have really messed up the rehearsal schedule by putting the show behind their original overall schedule. Though they have been trying to make up those missed rehearsal days. The cast and crew has been doing this by using their entire set rehearsal time instead of letting some people leave early when they are done. They have also scheduled a six-hour make-up rehearsal on Friday the fifteenth to catch back up with their overall schedule.
“Anyone who has done a show knows it’s incredibly hard work that takes discipline, commitment, and passion to do well at it. People in theatre develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving processes, social skills like empathy, patience, leadership, collaboration, aesthetic appreciation, literary understanding,” says Mr. Sean Kelly, the CHS drama teacher and the director of the show.
The entire cast and crew have been working hard to make this show ready to perform in front of audiences. They have also incorporated many new and exciting things into this show that they haven’t had in years before. These incorporations include a large motorized turntable and using prosthetics for the gargoyles and some other characters.
This show, with its amazing sets and costumes, and its beautiful score is set to amaze audiences. The cast and crew couldn’t be more excited to show audiences this show, with all of the hard work they have been putting into it. “I hope that the audience enjoys the characters and their complicated feelings,” says Ella Nelson, a junior at CHS. Even though this show is set a long time ago, in fifteenth century Paris, it still does have a lot of similarities to today and includes many lessons that could be applied to the world today. It very much deals with the issues of how people today treat minority groups. Kiana Willhoft, a sophomore at CHS comments, “One thing I’m really excited about is the fact that we are all able to tell this beautiful story with people and acknowledge its deeper meaning.”
Performances are on March 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, and 23 at 7 p.m. and March 16 and 23 at 2 p.m. Tickets are sold online here at the ASB window. Support the Camas drama department by coming to see this beautiful and inspiring show. Kelly hopes, “the audience leaves the theater thinking hard about the ways in which we approach out-groups and minorities like immigrants, the differently abled, women, and the mentally ill. My hope is that they leave with more empathy and understanding for those who are ‘outcasts’.”
