Plains students build set for play

The Plains School Drama Club set the stage for its upcoming play, "A Little Piece of Heaven," scheduled for January 27 and 28 at 7 p.m. both evenings in the school's new gymnasium.

It took Terri Henry, the school's drama coach, and Cathy Emmett, the assistant drama coach, and sophomore Alexander Horodyski, who portrays Jared Havens in the play, more than five hours Saturday to erect the setting for the play. Most of the cast members couldn't help with the set-up because of illness or previous engagements. Senior Dawson Brown helped transport the walls and other materials from a shed to the gym. They also worked on the setting Tuesday.

"A Little Piece of Heaven," written by Mathew Carlin, is a comedy set in an odd little curiosity shop where people search for lost things and have unlikely relationships in the meantime. The play, which runs nearly two hours, will be put on by 13 members of the school drama club. It's the cast that selects the play. Henry said they looked at six or seven plays before deciding on "A Little Piece of Heaven."

The school had planned to put the play last fall, but it was postponed when Henry came down with Covid. Even now, Covid has played havoc with cast members. Several were quarantined. "Practicing has been a nightmare. I think we've only had five rehearsals that everyone was there," said Henry, who's been the drama coach for some 30 years. They first started rehearsals in September before it was postponed. The group painted the panels in November. They resumed rehearsing weeks ago in the school library. They started rehearsals on stage Tuesday.

This will be the first play in the new gymnasium and on the new portable stage platform, which is on wheels and in sections and could be assembled into different configurations. Setting up the stage was a walk down memory lane for Henry and Emmett, who's been with the club since the 1990s. They erected 20 panels for the shop walls. On the backside of each panel were countless signatures of past student actors that date to the 1980s, including Horodyski's, mother, Ivy - McGuyer - who played in "Little Women" in 2005. Emmett likes looking at the names and said if they are ever replaced, she'd like to see them displayed on a wall. Emmett said it was tradition that the actors sign the eight-foot tall panels after their final performance. She said the students were supposed to sign only once, but McGuyer's autograph was found on three panels. The panels also revealed titles of past plays as well as lines from plays.

Henry is looking forward to her club performing in the new building, but she said they would eventually like to get portable stage lights, which could run $10,000-$15,000, and a sound system. The drama club is also planning a play in the spring.