Recently, West Ashley High School’s The Drama Studio hosted a Fall Play Festival. This is the first time that they have put on this festival and hope to do it again in the future. With the retirement of long-time drama teachers Ellyn Winkles and Nancy Shurlds last year, The Drama Studio welcomed two new drama teachers, Latanya Mueller and Michelle Jones, for the 2017-2018 season. Mueller’s Drama 1 students and Jones’ Drama 2 students performed Sorry, Wrong Number and The 9 Worst Breakups of All Time on Wednesday and Second Class on Thursday.
Sorry, Wrong Number, a mystery by Lucille Fletcher, is about a woman who, while on the telephone, overhears what she thinks is a murder plot and tries to prevent it. It was performed along with The 9 Worst Breakups of All Time, a comedy by Ian McWethy, about a woman named Eve Tonsil who works for a company called “Relationships for a Better Tomorrow.” She takes the audience on a tour of the nine worst breakups that have ever happened. The tour begins with the Cro-Magnon era then moves on to the Civil War era and finally ends with present day.
On night two of the Fall Play Festival, The Drama Studio performed a play called Second Class by Brad Slaight. It’s about what happens at a high school before the bell rings, what goes on in the hallways, and what happens in the parking lot after the school day is over; all of the places where the real learning takes place.
Up next for The Drama Studio is The Grinch. Mueller’s Drama 3 class and Jones’ Drama 1 will perform in the show. They are doing two school shows: one at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 6 for local elementary and middle schools and one at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7 for students, faculty, and staff at WAHS. Admission is free for all shows.
In the spring, The Drama Studio will put on their 17th spring musical; Barry Manilow’s Copacabana: The Musical. It’s about an aspiring song-writer named Stephen who tries to compose what he hopes will be a successful musical. His imagination takes him back to the 1940s, as he creates a story surrounding an ambitious singer named Lola Lamar who arrives in New York City from Tulsa, OK hoping to become a star. She ends up at the Copacabana Nightclub and strives to become a ‘Copa Girl’, a dancer with the help of the club’s bartender, Tony Starr.
