On the fourth of December, North Star Debuted their first unified play of the school year: Charlotte’s Web. The play mixes students in theater with life skill students in order to produce one production. As a viewer of the play, it’s obvious how much hard work was put into it. Between the props to the dialogue, everything flowed nicely creating an enjoyable show. Dominic Schaffer, one of the main characters explained exactly what rehearsals entailed, “We would run over the entire show twice, but the second time through we would add something silly like an accent to one of the characters. It made practice super fun!”
The theater department is run by Ms. Lindsay Masin who works hard to produce shows that aren’t just entertaining on stage, but also help foster the start of new friendships behind the curtains. With the start of the unified theater program at North Star, Ms. Masin’s goal has been accomplished. It’s an opportunity for students to meet who otherwise would probably never cross paths. Schaffer even mentioned that his favorite part of the process was forming new connections, “It’s a really tight-knit community, so it was nice to add more people to that environment and get the opportunity to talk with unfamiliar faces.”
Ali Alsulaimani, a life skill student who acted as the frog in Charlotte’s Web, gave a little insight into what the performance meant to him. “I was super happy my family came to watch me on stage. My favorite part was all my friends and classmates clapping for me and telling me I did a good job after it was over,” Alsulaimani commented. Alsulaimani also shared that he sometimes gets nervous before performing but can quickly overcome that by taking deep breaths and talking to his theater partner.
Unified theater isn’t just special because of the opportunities it creates for different people around North Star. It’s special because it’s fairly unique in LPS, many other schools don’t have the chance to join/watch something as exceptional as this. Although this particular show is over, there will be another one and I would highly recommend everyone take the time to come watch the next; you will not regret it.
