As soon as the lights went down in the black box, the audience was enraptured. A spotlight flicked on and illuminated Pony Boy giving the first monologue of the play, mournful and insistent. Over the next two hours, insults were traded, punches thrown, and a church burnt down. Swaggering, leather-clad Greasers were pitted against swaggering, sportscar-driving Socs in a drama that felt like a throwback to the 1960s.
JHS theater performed “The Outsiders” Nov. 6, 7 and 8. The play is based on the 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton. The story details one town’s struggle to reconcile the violence between the Socs (the privileged upper class) and the Greasers (the working class).
“I was super happy with how everything turned out,” junior Amira Castilleja said. “I’ve seen the movies, I’ve read the book, but it was fun to be a part of doing the play, just working with it, and it made me get to know more about the story that I didn’t get from the movies or book.”
JHS theater has been working on “The Outsiders” since the beginning of the semester. Actors enjoyed learning their lines and getting into character.
“[My favorite thing about The Outsiders was] my leather jacket. It was awesome,” freshman Cash Cooley, who acted the lead role of Pony Boy in the Nov. 6 and 8 evening shows, said. “It was a vest. I had a sick leather vest.”
Because “The Outsiders,” is set in the 1960s, JHS theater used costumes appropriate to the era.
“It was really fun. I got to put on a cool outfit and be a little sassy to some boys,” senior Libby Phillips said as her role as Marsha, a Soc.
The story follows Pony Boy, the youngest of three brothers who have lost their parents. It touches on themes of family, class, and prejudice.
“The plot was a little bit silly as it was just about some random kid and his dead parents,” Cooley said.
After the success of “The Outsiders,” JHS Theater will perform the musical “Mama Mia” Jan. 29, 30 and 31. Musicals tend to be more whimsical than plays, and also typically require more work to perform because they involve singing and dancing in addition to lines and props.
“There’s a lot more that goes into [putting on a musical], like choreography, dancing and singing,” Phillips said. “We’ve already started choreographing…We’ll look at inspiration from other schools or Broadway productions and take what we like and put it together.”
Between “The Outsiders” and “Mama Mia,” JHS theater students have plenty of opportunities to perform. They will also be preparing a third production to be performed next semester, for UIL.
“My favorite thing about theater is getting a role and putting myself into their point of view and being able to act it. It’s a lot of fun,” Castilleja said. “People don’t do it because they have stage fright…whenever you are acting like someone else, you don’t really think about yourself in the moment, you just think about who you’re playing.”
Mama Mia will come in January, but for now, theater students can take pride in a successful production of “The Outsiders.”
“I would love to do more productions like that. The cast was perfect,” Cooley said. “I had a jolly old time.”
