By Madison McCann, Editor-in-Chief
One year after the original theater production The Project was written and produced by students at Vashon Island High School, it is beginning to spread to other schools. This spring, North Kitsap High School will be putting on the same show at their school.
“The Project” was originally written and directed by VHS alumna Hannah Felbaum, with the music composed and conducted by Kate Atwell.
“[When I found out] I was really excited,” Felbaum said. “Lots of people don’t even get their show put on once, let alone twice.”
The majority of the original cast of “The Project” was new to theater, as opposed to the cast from North Kitsap that will be mostly experienced thespians.
“The Project” was introduced to North Kitsap by senior Hazeline Montgomery, who was the stage manager for the show at VHS before she transferred last fall.
One concern Montgomery had with “The Project” being produced at North Kitsap was that the show — which normalizes gay and lesbian couples — would not be embraced by the more conservative North Kitsap School District. But thus far, the show has been welcomed, according to Montgomery.
“In North Kitsap they’re fairly accepting. There are quite a few students in the program who are transgender or gender-fluid,” Montgomery said. “We changed the character of Caroline to be a genderfluid character because the actor is gender-fluid, and we decided to reflect that in the character.”
Montgomery introduced “The Project” to North Kitsap after their former theater teacher retired without a replacement, leaving the students to fend for themselves.
“The school district has been pretty difficult [to work with about] getting things set up because theater is now a club,” Montgomery said. “We only get two days of tech in the theater.”
For this reason, true to its form, “The Project” will once again be student-directed and produced.
“The music has been the hardest part for us so far because we haven’t been able to get the sheet music yet,” Montgomery said.
According to Montgomery, North Kitsap’s music director has been working to transcribe the music from the original show.
The dates for South Kitsap’s production of “The Project” are Thursday, March 30, starting at 7:30 p.m., and Friday, March 31 starting at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
The creation of the original production of “The Project” was supported by VHS English teacher Steven Denlinger, who hopes to support more aspiring playwrights in the future.
Denlinger has just begun working with sophomores Talia Roybal (playwright) and Lucy Boyle (composer) as they write, compose, and choreograph a dance musical.
“I’m pretty nervous [about writing a musical] because it’s a whole show, but I’m also pretty excited because I like doing stuff like that,” Roybal said. “I want to write a show that is pretty much Titanic on a ferry boat.”
Once the show is written, theatre director Stephen Floyd will then produce the show. The new dance musical is slated to be produced in the spring of 2019, during the girls’ senior year.