By BRIAN FERRY
Knights in shining armor.
Article Photos
An Old West saloon.
Roaring Twenties flappers.
The faculty at Eisenhower Middle High School is putting on a show to support students who put on shows.
A group of about 20 teachers and the school's two principals will put on the multi-faceted play High Noon in the Styrofoam with Timely Nick and Betty Brown by Jeff Irvine.
The show includes three individual melodramas - High Noon at Gloomtown, The Sword in the Styrofoam, and Timely Nick and Betty Brown.
"You'll see everything from the Old West to the medieval era to the Roaring Twenties," eighth grade language arts teacher Adrianne Hunt said.
Ticket sales benefit the Knight-time Players.
"It's a fund-raiser for the theater arts trip to New York," Spanish teacher Jeweline Rozanski said.
"We do this for the kids every other year," co-director Pam Durnell said.
"We've done the faculty plays a couple of times in the past and they have always been a lot of fun for both the cast and the audience," co-director Mary Passinger said.
"Knight-time Players has been around for about 25 years," Passinger said. "We started by taking a group of students to California for a media workshop. Since then we have taken students to London, NYC, Toronto, and Chicago."
"We produce three plays a year, including a fall production, mid-winter production and a spring production," she said. "Last year we initiated a dinner theatre and are continuing that new tradition this year in March."
In May, this year's trip will take students to productions including Mary Poppins, War Horse, Lion King, and Memphis as well as a more general tour of the city.
For the faculty performance, members of the Players are in charge of signs, props, lighting and sound.
"It's a great chance for the students to see the teachers in different circumstances from the classroom," Passinger said. "It's especially good for them to see the administrators willing to participate."
"It definitely is interesting," seventh grade science teacher Olivia Zapel said. "You're taking the teacher hat off."
"It's fun for the kids to see their teachers in a different light," reading specialist Carrie Niemetz said.
"It's very strange characters compared to what we are during the day," Rozanski said. She plays a character that isn't even human.
"We have a blast," Durnell said.
The teachers are practicing twice a week to prepare for the event. They don't have to put in too much time outside of those practices to get ready. "We don't have that many lines," Rozanski said.
There will be a narrator and one villain (who might be struck by some popcorn from the audience) for each portion of the play.
"It's kid-friendly," Durnell said.
The performances will be held at the school at 7 p.m. Feb. 17 and 18.
"It should be interesting to see," Zapel said.