Naomi Espinoza
Senior Marcello Attardi performs a solo song in the Palo Alto High School Performing Arts Center on Friday as part of a student showcase. According to Attardi, the audience for "Drama and Desserts" seemed different than usual. "I felt like we, as a theater class, were demonstrating our craft for a bunch of laypeople," Attardi said.
Following the success of Paly Theatre’s Drama and Desserts, event organizers encourage student participation in upcoming events.
Theatre Department Director Sarah Thermond celebrates the success of the back-to-school gathering, adding that Drama and Desserts is not the only opportunity for low-stakes student participation. She mentions Paly’s Play-In-A-Day, which is held every December.
“It’s an event where any Paly student or alum can come back and put on a show together in just one day of rehearsal,” Thermond said. “It’s really nice for someone who maybe wants to try out theater but doesn’t want to commit to a huge schedule.”
Thermond encourages Paly audience members to return for Something Wicked This Way Comes, an interactive Shakespeare event that Paly Theatre is hosting in October.
“It’s [the event] going to involve some performers doing traditional Shakespeare scenes at different places around the Haymarket, and then other performers serving as tour guides for the audience,” Thermond said. “You’re going to get sorted into a group, and what you experience is going to vary slightly based on what group you’re in.”
Thermond also encourages Paly students to come see the fall play, The Crucible, in November.
“If any high school students don’t know The Crucible, I can guarantee it’s more unhinged than anything they’ve ever seen on stage, but in a really cool, relevant way,” Thermond said.
Paly Theatre’s first event of the year was Drama and Desserts on Friday, September 11, when families ate sweets and watched student performances in the Performing Arts Center at 6:30 p.m.
According to Thermond, the night combined a new family information night with the first performances of the year.
“It can be a good kind of friendly welcome, both in the potluck, mingling element, and in the type of performance that you get to see today,” Thermond said.
Following a reception with desserts in the lobby, the performance began on the PAC stage with student improv games that incorporated audience suggestions. Next, Thermond gave a presentation for parents sharing information about the theatre program, before a final group of students performed short monologues and songs.
Thermond said the event is an opportunity for each student to be highlighted on stage with content learned in class.
“The first unit in Theater 1 and 2 is sort of developing their ability to improvise, and the first unit in [Theatre] 3 and 4 is prepping audition and competition pieces,” Thermond said. “I realized there was a way to … share something that would let us highlight every individual student in the course.”
According to Thermond, this event is also a great way to introduce theatre to new audiences.
“The kinds of performances we’re doing today are really meant to be digestible, approachable, appropriate for everyone, [and] it’s going to be a relatively short performance,” Thermond said. “I think it can be really accessible for people who haven’t quite settled into live theater yet.”
Thermond chose to incorporate student performances alongside the standard informational night for parents, potentially creating a larger audience.
“I’m hoping the performance element will kind of help spread word of mouth more, and in future years, it’ll be bigger.”