Goshen High School Drama Club performs ‘Treasure Island’
Goshen. The performances took place in the beginning of this month.
November kicked off with a bit drama at Goshen High School, the kind of drama that includes costumes, lighting queues, and superb acting. Goshen High School Drama Club advisors Jim Quinlan and Kristen Scully decided to put on a performance of “Treasure Island” for this year’s fall production.
“Who doesn’t like an adventure story?” Scully said in a rundown of the performance published by the school district. “I read the script, I was like, wow, this sounds like the kids would have a lot of fun.” Deciding on the script for the fall was a process that began well before summer vacation of the 2023-2024 school year. “We had to do auditions in June because we knew the script was going to be a lot,” Scully added.
Junior Jillian Kyrou, who played Doctor Livesey, said she memorized her lines over the summer. “It was easier in the fall when we came in and I already knew my lines on stage,” Kyrou shared.
Fellow junior Dalton Fortugno-Harris played Ben Gunn, a former member of Long John Silver’s crew who was abandoned on Treasure Island. According to the school, Fortugno-Harris has been involved in theater since his time at CJ Hooker. He, too, took the opportunity to memorize the script over the summer. “It ended up being nice because the cast was able to get to know each other over the summer,” Fortugno-Harris said. “So I think we were a tighter group than we have been in previous years.”
To help round out the performance, Quinlan put a call out to Facebook to find people with experience depicting action scenes on stage. Two people responded. “They taught everybody the basics of fist fighting on stage,” Quinlan said. “They taught small groups the basics of sword fighting, and then they choreographed one larger sword fight scene that came out really good.”
Scully said the choreography helped add a realistic feel to the performances. “That’s not something that’s usually done a lot at the high school level, at least not done well.”
With the help of Goshen High School technology teacher Joe Fedor, the production was able to add some special touches to the set: a rotating stage with a 25-foot diameter, 200 wheels and a motor that turned one scene into the next. “It was so cool because we could just go into the next scene and it could start while the stage is rotating,” Quinlan said. “It was more visually appealing.”
According to the school, the rotating stage freed up the crew to manage props and the 16 microphones that were being used during the production. “The crew doesn’t always get seen, but they are working. It’s so much backstage keeping everything running,” Scully shared. The club advisors also credited Brendan Folkl, the production’s lighting designer, for leading the way in lighting the rotating stage.
The play turned out to be a success, but has raised the bar for future performances. “In some ways I think the talent from the kids has always been there. I think we’ve put a little more of the staging into the productions over the years to make it a little more full,” Scully added.
The Drama Club’s next performance will be “Pippin.”