What’s recently happened?
This month, the Boone Grove High School Drama Club put on its production of “Hadestown: Teen Edition,” a story of love, loss, and hope. The plot follows Orpheus, a down-on-his-luck songwriter who falls in love with Eurydice, a beautiful girl from his town. After their marriage, Eurydice is unsure of how Orpheus will provide for him and makes a deal with Hades, who offers her anything she desires as his wife. She takes the deal, unbeknownst to Orpheus, and he must go down to Hadestown and save her.
The musical featured a large cast, boasting eight seniors in their final role in the Boone Grove Drama Club. This included Timothy Primiani as a worker, Grier Goetzinger as a worker, Madi Alford as a fate, Mitchell Saco as Hermes, River Contreras as Persephone, Nathan Mallory as Hades, Nikole Treece as Eurydice, and Gavin Davis as Orpheus.
“Overall, I’d give this musical a 10 out of 10. I’d say it’s the best opener of all of Boone Grove musical history. The tech did an outstanding job,” Boone Grove alum and former Drama Club tech member Austin Guerrero said. “My favorite part was Nathan Mallory’s little number before intermission. He was singing about the wall and it was so good!”
English Teacher Jori Swan was very impressed with the musical.
“I think that’s the best one I’ve seen here in my whole career. It was a great opening night and everything went great,” Swan said.
Teachers’ week was celebrated this month with snacks and meals for teachers provided by the Student Council and local restaurants. Teachers’ doors were embellished with sticky notes left by students praising them for their effort and dedication to teaching.
The choir and band held their concerts, the social studies academic team placed second in the State competition, student artist Elyse Bowman had her ceramic piece, “Koi Pond” featured at the Tri-County Senior High School Art Exhibition located at Southshore Arts in Munster, and Mallory was accepted into Ball State University’s BFA Acting program as one of 12 members from an estimated total of 1,400 applicants.
What’s coming up?
The end of the year is drawing closer and closer at Boone Grove, with the last student day being May 29 and the graduation ceremony following close after on May 30. End of the year festivities include a spirit week during the week of May 19 and a senior sunrise.
Finals are around the corner, with students studying hard to keep up their grades and ace their exams. Students at Boone Grove who participate in clubs and sports, keep their grades up, and avoid tardies are eligible to earn “exam waivers” which negates the need to take their finals.
Staff spotlight:
Stacy Davis has been the drama director at Boone Grove for eight years, starting in 2017. She’s directed productions such as “39 Steps”, “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Wizard of Oz,” “Chicago: The Musical,” “The Outsiders,” “Rock of Ages,” “Jekyll and Hide,” “Mean Girls: The Musical,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and most recently “Hadestown: Teen Edition.”
“A friend of mine said, ‘Hey, the drama director at Boone Grove just quit and I know your daughter is into drama, but we probably won’t have a drama program by the time she gets into high school,’ and I told her, ‘If you and I come together and do it, I can help.’ When I ended up taking over, I had to really lock in because I started getting more enrollments, and I had to teach myself with online courses. I went to study groups, did a lot of reading, watched a lot of YouTube, and taught myself a lot. I don’t have a degree in it, but I’m self-taught,” she said.
Her favorite production to date in her career is “Hadestown: Teen Edition” because of the group who participated in the performance.
“Not only is it a favorite one of mine because it’s the latest, but it does help that I love the cast. A lot of new kids came in not knowing anything, and they didn’t leave even though we were hard on them,” she said.
Davis is definitely going to miss the seniors who are about to leave the program, but remains excited to continue building with the returning students next year.
“I feel like the underclassmen are definitely passionate about this. If they didn’t quit after Shakespeare, I think they would really want this. I love them all, but my seniors are going to be my babies forever,” she said.
Student spotlight:
Gavin Davis is a senior at Boone Grove who has been involved with Drama Club for more than six years. His mom serves as the director of the program, and he enjoys being backstage and performing as well.
In his final production, he starred Orpheus, the main character of “Hadestown,” who must save his wife from the ghoulish grasp of the underworld. Other shows he’s been involved with include “Clue,” “Peter and Wendy,” “Rock of Ages,” “The Outsiders,” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” among others.
He cites this most recent character as his favorite role yet.
“He’s a musician, and I feel like he just fits along with my life. I love this character, and the show and music are just great,” he said.
Along with the musical numbers, he admires the realism that comes from being on stage in front of a crowd.
“I love the ability to express art to other people. Acting on stage is so much different than being behind a camera, it’s so much more real, and it's so natural for humans to love seeing how stuff is created and how amazing people can be on stage,” he said.
On top of singing along to backing tracks, Gavin Davis decided to play three of the songs from the musical live on acoustic guitar.
“I’ve been playing guitar now for almost two years, and it feels way more calming. I tried to play along with the backing tracks, and it’s just harder to catch a guitar melody when you’re not the one playing it. It feels so much more real and natural if I’m doing it myself. I went into auditions with my guitar, I learned the song for my audition,” he said.
Looking past high school, Gavin Davis will be going to Ivy Tech Community College for graphic design and plans to get his real estate license. He’s also hoping to start a band and find a way to be on stage after high school.
