The Sunnyvale Sun

Education

School Thespian Club banks on success of student plays

By Erin Hussey

Two Sunnyvale residents, Rebecca Johnson and Kevin Hull, have penned one-act plays that will be performed Dec. 8 at the Mission City Center of the Performing Arts in Santa Clara. The two are students at Wilcox High School.

The presentation is a fundraiser for the school's Thespian Club, which plans to travel this spring to the California State Thespian Festival in Ontario.

Rebecca wrote The Unlocked Door, and Kevin wrote The Best Intentions of Father Time.

"I think it's really important for them to feel a part of the entire creative process," Wilcox Thespian Club adviser and theaterteacher Dani Salzer said. "It's really important for students like Becky and Kevin to see something from start to finish; it's not just about the writing, it's the whole process."

Rebecca's play, which she wrote in August, takes place on Mars and is about six hotel guests and one odd reporter. The play's premise grew out of her love of Agatha Christie mysteries and the Twilight Zone.

"It was sort of this idea that maybe you could make a play about something that isn't a twist because you always expect there to be that one thing at the end," she said. As a member of the Thespian Club for her entire high school tenure, Rebecca has performed in more than 12 school plays. This year, she took over the reins as club president.

"She is very motivated and determined and intelligent," Salzer said. "I think she has been our strongest president we have had in quite a while."

Rebecca's love of theater developed at an early age when her father introduced her to musicals. However, her play, The Unlocked Door, is the first she has written.

"It's actually a fairly recent interest," she said. "I used to hate writing, actually. Then in high school, I started writing short stories, and somehow me writing these short stories and me loving theater, it became a play."

Like Rebecca, Kevin has always loved the theater, but never thought of himself as a playwright.

"Theater and writing in general have always been in there," he said, "but now it's just really starting to come out."

Kevin wrote The Best Intentions of Father Time the summer before his sophomore year after having several friends of friends die.

"There were just all these things happening at once to people really close to me, and so that's where it came from," he said. With the help of his co-actor Lauren Catron, Kevin made a variety of revisions in order to create the play he wanted.

"Dealing with problems is all about connecting with people and sharing with them and sharing your story," he said, referring to the play's overall message.

The play takes place in a small studio apartment. The two characters, Caleb and Kaleigh meet one rainy day in New York and soon realize they have much in common.

"The important part about Caleb being a painter is that he is taking everything he has experienced and is creating something with it, and that's kind of how you can take all this tragedy that there is," Kevin said. "You can create something that is really beautiful out of it."

In addition to his passion for theater, Kevin plays a variety of instruments including piano, guitar, mandolin and saxophone. He also enjoys writing his own songs.

"He has a lot of singing talent," Salzer said. "He is a bright boy and very creative. He is the type of student who can offer helpful feedback to younger students and use his experience to help guide those who are new to the program."

Kevin has played the leads in a variety of school plays, including Joseph in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and he is currently the publicity chairman for the Thespian Club. Like Rebecca, he would like to remain involved in music and theater after he graduates.

The plays will run back to back for one night only on Dec. 8 at the Mission City Center for Performing Arts in the Marilyn Rea Hall at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5. For more information, call 408.423.2415.