PHS Drama Club: New Name & New Plays

By PHS Mercury's Paige Hill  

PHS Drama Club has a New Name, Presents a New O. Henry Adaption with a School Board Member Cameo

The Peekskill High School Drama Club – now renamed RED DEVIL REPERTORY will be presenting THREE GIFTS from O. Henry, an original stage adaptation of
three of O. Henry’s most beloved short stories, on December 2nd & 3rd, 7:30 pm at the Peekskill High School Auditorium.
Tickets will be sold at the door:
$7 students, $10 adults.

 This holiday offering, perfect for the whole family (school-aged and above), will take the audience back to New York City circa 1905.  Director Katie Schmidt Feder has woven together the characters and stories of The Gift of the Magi, the Last Leaf and The Cop and the Anthem.  The audience will meet a young couple, Jim
and Della, each willing to sacrifice his or her greatest possession in order to
purchase the other the perfect Christmas gift.

Two female artists, Sue and Johnsy, living in Greenwich Village face the cold icy hand of pneumonia and are rescued by a most unexpected gift from their downstairs neighbor, Mr. Behrman, a painter always waiting to paint his greatest masterpiece.  Soapy, a homeless man, just wants to get arrested so he can spend the winter with shelter and three square meals a day.  Intermingled with these characters are other inhabitants of the bustling turn-of-the 20th Century setting, including a shopkeep, carolers, waiters, cops, a newspaper man, pushcart lady and tree sellers, even a mysterious wig-maker, who help to tell this heart-warming tale.

 Members of the cast include:
Sheridan Alexander, Stephanie Barahona, Gregory Clark, Sterling Fite,
Stephanie Gil, Paige Hill, Ayo Jegede, Valerie Kropf, Arianna Memoli, Myles Parks,
Milton Romero, Lucas Sanchez, Michael Snell, Michaela Spencer.  Stage Manager is Margaret Krapish.  Production Manager is Robert Pagan.  Lighting Designer is Kayla Kershus.  Student Producer is Stephanie Gil.

 In addition to using original text from O. Henry’s writing, the cast is also contributing through character choices, holiday songs and improvisation.  Characters from the different stories meet, in one case resulting in a most poignant scene between Jim and Soapy.  Although the themes of the show include poverty, homelessness, illness and life disappointments, there will also be a rousing scene with music, spaghetti and a special cameo appearance by school board member Tuesday Paige McDonald who is a talented vocalist.

 To research the period of the show, seven students accompanied Ms. Feder, Catherine Griffin, stagecraft advisor, and parent Linda Shaw to New York City’s Tenement Museum.  There, they visited an authentic recreation of an early 1900’s apartment, complete with an actress portraying the role of a 14 year old immigrant.  The students were amazed at the tiny 3 room space which was home to seven family members and the technological advances of the period which included a coin-operated gas powered ceiling light.  The group also walked
through Greenwich village to see research cobblestone streets and brownstone stoops.

Ultimately, the set will represent an impression of the time period and
not an attempt at a replica, but key elements will bring the period to life.

 To properly outfit the actors for the period, Ms. Feder is conducting a costume workshop with some of the students – funded by the Peekskill Education Foundation.  The students are taking costumes from storage and Salvation Army and transforming them into late Victorian and early Edwardian styles.  Keen eyes might notice the plaid pants worn by the “Mayor of Whoville” in last year’s Seussical transformed into puffy Victorian sleeves created by and to be worn by student Paige Hill. 

Margaret Krapish, who also serves as stage manager for the production, has been adjusting contemporary men’s jackets to reflect the different cut of the earlier age say she “likes transforming contemporary clothing to period clothing because it’s challenging and there is a lot of research involved.”

 As THREE GIFTS is all about sharing the gifts of artists,
the gifts of the holidays, the gifts of charity and empathy for those less
fortunate, there will be a collection of canned or non-perishable food items in the performance lobby to benefit Fred’s Pantry, a program of C.H.O.P (Caring for the Homeless of Peekskill, Inc.).

Also, in gratitude to Ms. Paige McDonald for her performance in the
show, a collection will be taken at intermission to benefit the Jason C. Paige