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Hills-Beaver Creek High School will return to in-person public performances next month — and it’s no April Fool’s Day joke.
“Our students are excited,” said director Amy Comp. “This is a new opportunity for a lot of our students, and they were excited to get to work on it. … It’s definitely been an extracurricular that students were interested in, but we did not have established.”
Comp chose the murder-mystery comedy, “The Crazy Quilt Club,” by Pat Cook for the performances scheduled for April 1 and 3.
For several weeks the nine-member cast has rehearsed, built the basic set and learned tips about acting on stage.
“This play was selected because we felt it was a good fit for our students. It’s got some great comedy as well as some more serious dialogue,” Comp said.
“We knew it would be a good play to start with in our theater department at H-BC.”
Junior Britton McKenzie spearheaded bringing a spring play production back to the school’s student offerings. He serves as the play’s student director.
“They have all come together to make the dream a reality,” McKenzie said. “It is so exciting to see everyone take on the task of making sure we can succeed.
“I am proud that each of them is enjoying their time and making it worthwhile for themselves and their cast.”
H-BC’s last theatrical production was completed in 2019.
Comp, the district’s 5-12 band instructor, embraced leading students in an activity many have not experienced.
“It’s been a lot of work, and a lot of learning for me, but I feel we definitely need to have a theater department at H-BC so these students have as many performance opportunities as possible.”
The comedy centers around Veronica Blather (portrayed by sophomore Tahliya Kruger), a sweet little old lady who spends most of her time knitting and writing murder mysteries.
Blather, however, also likes to solve murders, most of which occur whenever she shows up. Understandably Blather has a problem finding a place to live and when her niece, Dr. Joyce Lydecker (junior Tyrae Goodface), invites her to stay at a retirement home for old knitters, the situation seems ideal — until one of the old knitters dies from drinking poison punch.
Who did it?
Is the murderer the president of the Crazy Quilt Club, Matilda Thibedeaux (junior Lexi Drake) or Lydia Thornedyke (sophomore Joy Taubert), who likes to die on Tuesdays?
Or could the murderer be Clara Quinten (eighth-grader Caidence Ellis), who’s a compulsive liar, or the wise-cracking Sarafina Litton (eighth-grader Sarah Prohl), who doesn’t trust anyone and carries a rifle just to be sure?
What about Myrtle Ipswitch (freshman Lexxus Wessells), who’s a bit of a snoop, or even Viola Underwood (sophomore Madison Gaugler), who has a tell-tale allergy.
It’s a good thing Lt. Jack McCoy (junior Leif Tollefson) shows up to help and is determined to solve who put poison in the punch bowl.
Freshmen Isabella DeBoer and Kadence Rozeboom are part of the backstage crew.
“I hope that the audience has fun with it,” said student director McKenzie. “This is a fun show and a fun cast. Hopefully they appreciate the work that everybody is putting into this.”
Performances are 7 p.m. Friday, April 1, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 3, at the high school in Hills.
Tickets cost $4 for students and $6 for adults.