Students, with plenty of help from volunteers, to perform show this month to mark author Jane Austen’s 250th birthday
The Santa Ynez High School Drama Department, led by drama teacher Amy Curti, has had the custom of using its fall production to perform a classic play based on a novel, such as last year’s “Little Women.” This year, Curti had decided to mark the 250th birthday of the esteemed English author Jane Austen by putting on a dramatization of Austen’s classic novel “Emma.”
“Because it was Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, it felt appropriate to do this play,” said Curti, who is in her second year as the drama teacher at SYHS. “I know St. Joseph is doing ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and other high schools are doing Austen plays because of the milestone.”
Curti, the student cast members, and volunteer stagehands are currently hard at work on the production, which will culminate in performances on four straight days from Nov. 13-16.
The novel and story is focused mainly on its title character Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist of the story, a beautiful, high-spirited, intelligent, and somewhat spoiled young woman, but includes Mrs. Weston, Emma’s former governess and close friend, and Mr. Knightley, Emma’s neighbor and good friend. Mrs. Weston has just gotten married to Mr. Weston after Emma had introduced them, and because of that fancies herself a matchmaker. She tries to match a young girl, Harriet Smith, with a social-climbing gentleman despite Mr. Knightley’s advice not to, resulting in romantic misadventures. Eventually, things right themselves as Emma learns to potential problems of her matchmaking and meddling in the lives of her friends and neighbors.
SYHS student Isla Burditt is playing Emma in this production, and she compared how the themes and characters of her time can relate to modern times.
“Jane Austen, as many people have said, was ahead of her time,” she said. “She has so many notes of all these strong woman characters. And with Emma, she talks about how the women of the time would just drop everything to be with a man and get married and that was the social norm, and she doesn’t want to oblige to that. I think that’s a theme that trickles into our time now.”
As far as portraying the character, Isla said she is trying to inject a little of her personality into the role.
“In watching other people’s depiction of Emma, I thought they were kind of bland;I looked at her as someone who could be funny,” she said. “My family tells me I’m almost like a cartoon character with my facial expressions, so I try to incorporate that into scenes like when Emma is talking with someone she doesn’t necessarily like.”
“Ultimately though, my favorite thing about Emma is how hard she tries,” Isla continued. “She tries to do well, but she’s not really good about it. She’s kind of spoiled, but I like how hard she tries; she has a never-ending spirit.”
Addysinn Laliberte co-stars as Mrs. Weston, and enjoys her character’s role in the story.
“I think she’s the best friend of the story,” she said. “We are the ones who conspire and gossip, and as a teenager, I love to banter. However, I find her to be the true instigator in the story, but her motives are pure. She’s kind of the healthy conspirer.”
Alex Santi portrays Mr. Knightley, who is portrayed as a voice of reason throughout the story. “Mr. Knightley is the level-headed one, deep down a good person who generally cares,” Alex said. “He calls Emma out because he’s secretly in love with her. He’s like her conscience. I like how he is generally a good person.”
As the cast and crew continues to rehearse for the show, Curti hinted at a change for the selec- tion of shows from this point. In the spring, the department will be putting on a production of “The Sound of Music,” following its production last spring of “Andrew Lloyd Weber’s School of Rock.” Curti said the fall shows may become musicals also.
“We did set a precedent last fall with ‘Little Women’ to do a classic play,” she said. “I am believing though that our heart and passion might be for the musical. There’s such an interest from the students and the community for musicals, especially seeing the difference in attendance for ‘Little Women’ and ‘School of Rock,’ I think we might be seeing more musical coming from this point forward.”
But for now, the focus is on “Emma,” and the work on this show gives Curti another chance to applaud the community’s work and support for the show.
“Right now we have Natalie Groves, a local artist, painting our sets,” she said. “Chris Mullins, a history teacher at Santa Ynez High, and Bob Rennick built the set for last year’s show and then redid it — they go above and beyond, and this is how the theater works with people pitching in. We even had Isla’s grandmother, Cyndee Burditt, make the costumes for this production. It’s all hands on deck.”
But Curti said there’s still work to be done.
“We still need to update our sound system and need a new stage,” she said. “If you’d like to make a donation or help out just contact me.” Curti can be reached at acurti@syvuhsd.org
“Emma,” presented by the Santa Ynez High Drama Department, will run for four days, from Thursday, Nov. 13, to Sunday, Nov. 16 at the SYHS Little Theater. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday showings will be at 6:30 p.m., while Sunday’s showing will be 1 p.m. Tickets are available on the ASB Webstore at syvpirates.org and at the door.
