The words of playwright William Shakespeare filled the auditorium at Old Rochester Regional High School on Thursday, May 17 as the students in Kathleen Brunelle’s theater class presented their interpretation of “The Comedy of Errors,” a complicated tale involving two sets of twins whose identities become mistaken by the other characters. The production’s cast consisted of 24 students who were supported by two stage managers and two assistant directors.
Brunelle served as a director for the drama along with Paul Sardinha, who stepped in to help with the production when Brunelle left the school on maternity leave.
“I need to thank Paul for taking the reins,” Brunelle said before the show. “He’s really gone above and beyond in helping out.”
In her introduction, Brunelle also thanked three students for being in her classroom the entirety of their four years at ORR. These students were Eric Geldmacher, Lucas Parker, and Ashley Perry.
“We have a mix of kids in the class,” Brunelle said of the elective. “We have students who have never acted before and we have veteran actors, so they learn from each other.”
Brunelle added that a show like “The Comedy of Errors” requires the students to work together to determine both what the lines mean and how to convey those meanings to the audience.
In the original text, both sets of twins are male. In the ORR rendition, these twins were female. Male students, keeping to Shakespearean tradition, played half of these characters. Samuel Hill, who took on the role of Antipholous of Syracuse, performed as the servant to Eric Geldmacher’s Dromia of Syracuse.
Makenzie Despres performed as Samuel Hill’s twin and Kayla Ryan performed as Eric Geldmacher’s. Lucas Parker played Aegeon, and Shannon Frink played his wife, Aemelia. Steven Lang played Adriano, while Ian MacLellan played his brother, Luciano. Alex Carr featured as the Duke Solinus, and Eliza Treichel appeared as Angela, the goldsmith. Ashley Perry played Balta, Brittany Brzezinski played Luce, and Samuel Carey played Nathan.
Other members of the cast included: Marie Sylvester, Tess Roiter, Nicole Enos, Dennis Blais, Courtney McLeod, Nicole Boardman, Ashley Monger, Christina Ahrens, Roslyn Flaherty, Violet Foulk, and Anna Haznar.
Juliana Marques and Violet Foulk served as stage managers for the production. The assistant directors, Megan Pierce and Madelyn Pellegrino, assisted them in their work.
In the plot of the play, a family was split apart by a stormy sea. The father, Aegeon, tied himself to one mast with one of each twin, while his wife, Aemelia, did the same with the other twins. One family went to Syracuse and the other went to Ephesus; the two cities were warring.
In the course of the play, Dromia and Antipholous of Syracuse travel to Ephesus in order to search for their missing halves. Hilarity ensues when the townsfolk mistake each twin for the other. Some twins are suspected of illness and insanity, while others are accused of crimes. It is not until the last scene of the play when the twins, whom the other characters believe are both inside and outside a convent, find each other and celebrate a reunion with their parents.
Judging by the audience’s reaction, Samuel Hill and Eric Geldmacher stole the show with their falsettos and hair-flipping. The pair was unbelievable on stage, expertly portraying their characters by exaggerating feminine mannerisms. They had honest chemistry as mistress-and-servant, which stemmed from their friendship and banter in class. Connecting to the audience, Eric Geldmacher tossed his blonde wig into the audience during curtain call.
The theater class is a half-year elective open to all students at ORR. It runs during the spring semester and welcomes students with and without stage experience.
By Anne Smith