On Friday, Mar. 21 and Saturday, Mar. 22, the Ross High School Drama Club put on its first production of the 2024-25 school year: a comedic murder mystery called “The Alibis.” Delighting its audience with witty jokes, melodramatic characters, and a surprising plot twist, this first production was a major success.
After attending the play, RHS Junior Kameron Commins stated, “I thought it was super good… [and] super funny. I thought all the characters did really well portraying their roles, and it was really easy to follow along… So they did a really good job.”
The production was directed by Kelly Walker and assistant directed by RHS Spanish teacher Emily Meyer. Under their direction, a cast of 12 talented actors and a hardworking crew of 9 tech team members created an entertaining show for the Ross community.
In the show, five suspects of the murder of a wealthy woman were questioned by a detective and the late woman’s karaoke-loving butler. After admitting to practicing other misdemeanors during the time of the murder, the suspects were surprised when the woman unexpectedly appeared and told them she feigned her own death in order to access their felony-filled alibis and thus blackmail them into joining her crime family.
RHS Sophomore Ziva Brandao played Detective Case Neptune. She stated, “I feel very good about this performance being the first in a while, I think a comedy was a good come back [for the RHS drama club]. … I personally am most proud of how well all of us worked together to put together something we could all be proud of.”
Tech crew members were responsible for moving props around backstage, operating the sound and light systems, and gathering costumes from past RHS performances, as shared by sophomore costume designer and tech member Abby Roach. She explained, “We would bring items down for people to try on and see how they fit the character, watching as they brought the words on paper to life.” On the other hand, actors worked hard to memorize lines, perfect their movements and expressions, and block the play so they knew where to be onstage at any given moment.
While the performances went smoothly for the most part, the tech team ran into several challenges, especially during the premiere on Friday evening. Sound and lights tech member Ryan Bailey expressed, “The hardest challenge we had was when all of our mics quit working before the first performance on Friday. Some of the happiest moments I had was when we fixed the mics and ran through an almost perfect performance on Saturday.”
The Drama Club plans to continue to grow from here. They are on the quest for more members and are starting a student board to spread the word. Roach explained, “We are doing a board, and there’s going to be someone for publication, so they’re probably going to be doing Instagram and TikToks.” The group will also be hosting informational meetings again to gain student interest.
The club desires more diversity in age, as most of its members this year were underclassmen. Additionally, they are considering expanding their abilities into a musical next year. Actress Piper Rieke and tech member Mia McKinney agreed that relaunching the Drama Club with a comedy was a wise decision, while the club is also excited to perform other genres.
Not only did the club put on a “very entertaining” play (Sam Keilholz), they also bonded over funny moments onstage and their collective love for humor during rehearsals. Actress Lily West described rehearsals as “Loud. Everyone in theater is very talkative and very, very silly.” Drama club is a wonderful place for students to spend free time while making friends and learning new skills.
Walker praised her students, saying, “I am proud of how this cast and crew grew with each other. They made mistakes and tried again. … They encouraged each other and celebrated when things went well and all the pieces were falling into place.” She called their three performances an “absolute delight.”
The Drama Club did a fabulous job with their production of the Alibis. We can’t wait to see what’s next for this talented group.
