Carson High students celebrate Homecoming Week with 'Wednesday Night Live' production
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Fri, 09/24/2021 - 3:00pm
Carson High School is currently celebrating the school’s 150th anniversary with events for Homecoming week, including “Wednesday Night Live,” a local, student-led version of Saturday Night Live.
The show took place on Wednesday, Sept. 22 at the Bob Boldrick Community Theater at 7 p.m. It opened with a musical number to a remix of popular songs. There were plenty of politically relevant and dark jokes, along with poking fun at both the older and younger generations.
There were two musical guests, the first being Grace Knoll singing “If I Could Tell Her” from the musical Dear Evan Hansen, and the second being Hannah Walker singing “Creep” by Radiohead.
The show went from parodying “The Real Housewives” and founding fathers to purposely failed comedy routines, as well as a fake failed proposal to Homecoming. Between the scenes actors threw glow sticks into the crowd.
The show finished with the musical number parodying an American Horror Story scene performed by Aydree Shehorn.
“This show is almost one-hundred percent student written, produced, and created,” said Drama Teacher Andie Wilkerson. “I just make sure they are being safe, that it’s school appropriate, and that it fits within the time limit.”
To put on a production of this scale, there are many moving parts and roles for students, according to Wilkerson.
Wednesday Night Live is led by two student directors, Hayden Brieiter and Hannah Walker, as well as Stage Manager Yvon Ambriz Cabrera and House Manager Dalanee Betrue.There is also a team of technicians, actors, choreographers, musical guests and writers that build the show from scratch.
Student directors were involved in casting, approving scripts, writing scripts themselves, choreographing, overseeing direction of each scene, and even acting in skits. Breiter for the majority of the show was dressed as celebrity Guy Fierii and sat in the middle of the stage and ate a hamburger for a scene.
Students can learn valuable and marketable skills behind the scenes as well, which can help students be successful in their future careers.
For example, House Manager Betrue is in charge of concession and ticket sales, makes sure the theater is clean, and helps market and promote the show.
Stage Manager Ambriz Cabrera is in his junior year and has been participating in Carson High School Theater events since his freshman year. Having to transition from actor to a technician, Cabrera has gained management, leadership, and theater technician specific skills.
The tradition of Wednesday Night Live gives students the opportunity to explore and create what they are interested in themselves.
Alex Ramirez has been a part of the cast every year she's been attending Carson High; this year she wrote a skit called “Brits Suck”.
Ramirez and many others were going to write for the show last year but due to the restrictions brought on by COVID-19, the show was canceled. Coming back after skipping a year due to COVID-19 was a tricky thing, said Ramirez.
“It’s like my memories of WNL are all pre-COVID before everything happened,” said Ramirez. “Now it's different since we have masks, but that’s understandable,”
Senior Murphy Seljestad is new to the theater department and auditioned as an actor for the show on a whim. However, despite his lack of experience, Seljestad ambitiously took on three different roles.
Directors Walker and Breiter stated they are very thankful to their cast, crew and mentors that all helped put the production on. For them, directing a show like this holds significant emotional value.
“After a couple years of not being seen by a lot of high schoolers, it's nice being a senior and being able to get our work out there,” said Walker.
Wednesday Night Live is a part of the larger Homecoming Week for Carson High School. Each night the school puts on an event leading up to the Homecoming Dance, which takes place this Saturday. The event will be held on campus outdoors.
