One Act Play, ANY OTHER DAY, Takes the PCA Stage
April 5, 2017PCA News Stories
Portsmouth Christian Academy had the pleasure of participating in the New Hampshire Educational Theatre Guild (NHETG) regional festival for the second year in a row, this time taking a major step in PCA’s theatrical program with this one act play. Any Other Day is an original piece featuring students at the helm of every aspect of the production. A first for PCA, the topic for the show came from the director and co-set designer, Justin Lahue, who “wanted to do something so rarely seen within our local theatrical sphere. We handle a topic that many other schools and areas stray away from, and rightly so. However, the challenge of doing such daunting subject matter justice is exactly what theatre should attempt to do.”
Any Other Day, written by Justin Lahue and his father, Dale, centers on Mark, a student facing challenges both at home and academically. These challenges change completely after his school falls victim to a shooting, placing his classroom in lockdown for the duration of the show. Though the show deals with a school shooting within the modern high school setting, the themes shown stretch past what would seem to be the main conflict. The focus is on how tragedy affects relationships and how abruptly one’s world can be turned upside down. “It’s more about family, really, and the things we forget and forgive when the threat of something greater lies in the background.” says Justin Lahue.
With a show such as this, a considerable amount of responsibility falls upon the cast members. As PCA senior AJ O’Neil, states, “It is certainly always a refreshing experience to play a completely original character, as it gives much more freedom in how they are portrayed, and provides a great deal more room for deep thought on how a character would react in certain circumstances. Development becomes a larger goal, and ultimately a duty to the show. I think it is very important that while we take our liberties in portraying our characters there is very much still that idea of reality that we have to respect. Whatever direction we take our characters it is imperative that we ensure the situations and responses are kept believable and real.” This responsibility is placed within the entire cast to find their own characters from an original script.
While the show was written with the NHETG One Act Festival in mind, the cast and crew is ecstatic to bring the piece back to their home stage. A.J. O’neil noted,“The cast (of Any Other Day) was so encouraging and amazing throughout this whole experience. The ability to work intimately with a small cast on a theater project such as this is truly a blessing. It helps allow for so much growth in our acting and chemistry with our fellow actors on stage.”
This Saturday PCA will be holding a final performance for the show in collaboration with Noble High School at 7pm with doors opening at 6:30pm in the PCA gym.
