Clara Atwell, Reporter
This November, the school is putting on the productions Laundry and Bourbon and PVT. Wars. Both plays are being directed by VHS theater arts teacher Dr. Stephen Floyd.
Seniors Grace Brown, Madison McCann, and Louisa Moody makeup the small all-female cast of Laundry and Bourbon. The play takes place in a small town in Texas and follows Elizabeth (played by Moody) and her best friend Hattie (played by Brown) as they fold laundry, reflect on their lives, and drink bourbon on Elizabeth’s back porch.
The play takes a comical turn in the middle when Amy Lee Fullernoy (played by McCann) comes into the picture and changes the tone, instigating passive aggressive gossip between Hattie and Amy Lee. The tension between the three women, mixed with an excess of bourbon, leads to a humorous chase scene around the porch. This is Brown’s favorite scene.
“What the play lacks in scenery changes, it makes up for in both hilarity and emotional moments,” said Brown.
PVT. Wars will work as the second act to Laundry and Bourbon, despite being a seperate play.
“This play is a dark comedy centered around three veterans of the Vietnam War in a mental hospital,” said senior Xavier Ajeto. “While there is no direct connection, between the two plays, there is a part in Laundry and Bourbon where one of [the] housewives talks about her husband who is still recovering from the Vietnam War.”
PVT. Wars also has a small cast of seniors. It consists of Ajeto, who plays Gately, a childlike character from the south; Brennan Barrett who plays Sylvio, an Italian American who is insecure around women; and Hugh Davis, who plays Natwick, a man from Long Island who struggles to make a friend in the hospital.
This play is a dark comedy that has a deeper thematic conflict which lies in the idea that people need to stop sticking their noses into others’ businesses and instead focus on fighting their own “private wars.” This theme relates to many Americans’ views on the Vietnam War and on the characters’ personal struggles.
“They all have their own personal conflicts that they’re trying to figure out,” said Ajeto. “Gately spends his time fixing his radio, not knowing that his friends have been stealing parts. Sylvio spends his time covering up his insecurities around females by flashing the nurse. Natwick struggles with his efforts to try and make a friend in the hospital.”
While touching on different subjects, they both employ small casts to examine underlying tensions behind friendships. Both plays open on Friday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. and run through Sunday, Nov. 20.