By Aidan McCann, Reporter
After being involved in crew for two and a half years, senior Kate Lande put down her oars in 2016 in favor of the stage. The VHS Drama Club puts on biannual productions, and the latest one, titled “The Waiting Room,” was written by Lande.
Lande has performed in five plays over the course of her high school career, and feels good about the way to designate her time.
“It’s a lot more fun than crew,” Lande said of theatre.
Lande’s crew life became increasingly draining, and she thought drama would be a good class to join in succession.
Lande, who is also an artist, has spent a vast amount of time honing her writing skills over the years, and has developed a passion for the hobby.
The choice to join the cast of her first play, “The Sister Act,” was the one that led her to find joy in theater. She was an understudy for a top role, Sister Mary Lazarus, and also played several other parts throughout the play, such as a hooker and a bar patron.
Lande was asked to take over the character of Sister Mary Lazarus when the main was sick, and with little notice she took the stage.
After acting in three more plays, she asked English and theater teacher Stephen Floyd, for a chance to write a play of her own. Over the course of a month she wrote, produced, and acted in the one act play that was featured in November of 2017.
She approached Floyd, knowing that the process of writing a play — and producing it if it got to that point — was an arduous task, especially as a student.
Lande knew that if she could create it, there was the potential of seeing her play performed. She wrote her skit with editing help from Floyd, and together they expanded upon an idea she had been sitting on for a while.
Lande’s skit is set in a waiting room. It follows the bickering of a priest and a thug, until the two are joined by a third character.
Lande likened the waiting room in the skit to that outside a doctor’s office.
“But they aren’t waiting for the doctor,” Lande said. “These three people are dead, and they are waiting to go on to whatever awaits them in the afterlife.”
The thing is, the newer member doesn’t realize that they are dead, and none of them know how they got there.
“The priest and the thug, of course, have very different ideologies,” Lande said.
Her skit, while comedic, explores this deeper aspect.
Lande’s piece was showcased with another skit, called “Sophie.” They were performed in the VHS theatre as a way to help raise money for the trip to China for an international theatre festival.