By ADELINE LOYAL – Despite the many challenges found when navigating a socially distanced world, the drama club will be streaming its fall play, Paired Down, on Saturday, December 5 at 7:00 pm. 

Tickets for this virtual performance are on sale now at https://ihs.booktix.com/.  Individual tickets are $7.50 and a Family/Group Stream Pass is $15.00.

The play follows a series of short, socially distant scenes where actors are never closer than twelve feet. 

Navigating the new format has been an adjustment for most students involved in the show. “Instead of being able to interact directly, we have to find a way to interact while still being socially distant,” said sophomore Sophie Runge. 

However, drama students are optimistic. To them, the new rules and regulations are an opportunity for growth. According to junior Carson Midkiff, “One upside to doing a show like this is having more time to work on one to one interaction.”

Since there isn’t room for more than two people to be socially distanced on stage, the in-person scenes are all one-on-one.

Other scenes for the play will be performed over a Google meet call. Students, seated in separate rooms, perform their scenes into their cameras as if they were on a video call. This format allows for slightly larger casts, as the actors no longer need to stay far apart on stage.

Many of the seniors involved in the show are excited to be doing a fall play at all. “It’s definitely not what I expected of my senior year,” said senior Debra Flint, the show’s company manager. “As an underclassman, I saw myself acting like a mini director and crying during my last show hearing the applause from the audience. While I still get to play director, the applause is imaginary.”

Still, the show provides a way for IHS students to experience the fall play. While no one expected their school year to be so different, the drama club has found a way to bring its students some sense of normalcy.

[Photo by Leah Lyons]

Photo caption: “Juniors Avery Olenchick (foreground)and Autumn Smith (seated) rehearse a scene from the IHS Drama production of Paired Down.