2021-2022
Reunion (After the End of the World)
At age 6, Meredith Wilfred loves to tell people that she hates her neighbor, Andrew Powers. At age 16, she tells Andrew the same thing but goes to the dance with him anyway. At 45, Meredith and Andy have a great deal to tell each other: most married couples do. And, even at 66, Meredith is still learning about, and from, Andrew. This is a fine contest play because it is both easy to stage and a challenge. All eight
characters—two people at four different times in their lives—are onstage at the same time. The result is a play about love (and hate) and the way people change each other.
The play is loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell reported on while working as a journalist for the Des Moines Daily News. On December 2, 1900, Hossack's wife, Margaret, reported to the police that an unknown person broke into their house and murdered John with an axe while she slept next to him. Margaret was arrested for the murder a few days later at John's funeral. Glaspell followed the story closely and reported on its development, filing a total of twenty-six stories on the case over the course of Hossack's arrest and trial. Initially, Glaspell's reporting painted a rich portrait of Hossack as a formidable, cold-blooded woman, thoroughly capable of "having beaten [her husband's] brains out with an axe". However, after Glaspell visited the Hossack family farmhouse to gather materials for her next column, her tone shifted considerably. Subsequent reports from Glaspell showed Hossack under a much more sympathetic light as a meek woman who missed her children.
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Rabbit Hole
Directed by Grace Engstrom
AD/SM: Maddie Cox
October 1st and 2nd
Times - 7pm
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Theatre Location - PVHS Black Box
Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. Rabbit Hole charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day.
FALL IMPROV NIGHT
October 14th
Time - 7pm
Theatre location - PVHS Theater
Come join the PVHS Improv Squads as they make up an evening of fun and frivolity as they go!
Reunion (After the End of the World)
JH Fall Play
By Will Quam
Directed by Isabel Conner.
______________________________________
October 15 & 16
Times - 7 PM
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Theatre location - PVHS Black Box
After The Event wiped out civilization as we know it, a group of students walled themselves in their former school to build a new society, free from the past. But when a group of outside kids comes looking for something buried in the school, the past and present reunite in a play about memory, loss, and what it means to be a kid in extraordinary circumstances.
Urinetown
Directed by Christina Myatt
AD/SM: Kiera Bowman
______________________________________
November 4th, 6th, & 7th
Times: 7 PM and 2 PM
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Theatre Location - Mainstage
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A sidesplitting sendup of greed, love, revolution (and musicals!), in a time when water is worth its weight in gold.
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Winner of three Tony Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and two Obie Awards, Urinetown is a hilarious musical satire of the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, municipal politics, and musical theatre itself! Hilariously funny and touchingly honest, Urinetown provides a fresh perspective on one of America's greatest art forms.
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In a Gotham-like city, a terrible water shortage, caused by a twenty-year drought, has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity's most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero decides that he's had enough and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom!
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Inspired by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, Urinetown is an irreverently humorous satire in which no one is safe from scrutiny. Praised for reinvigorating the very notion of what a musical could be, Urinetown catapults the "comedic romp" into the new millennium with its outrageous perspective, wickedly modern wit, and sustained ability to produce gales of unbridled laughter.
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Individual Events Speech
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District - February 26th
Spartan Showcase - March 7th at 7 PM
State - March 12th
All-State - March 28th
Both Showcase events are at 7pm in the PVHS Black Box Theater (General Admission) and are open to the public.
What I did Last Summer
By A.R Gurney
Directed by Christina Myatt
AD/SM: Bella Hernandez
______________________________________
February 25th & 26th
Times: 7 PM
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Theatre Location - PVHS Black Box
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The setting is a well-to-do vacation colony on the shores of Lake Erie, the time 1945, during the final
stages of World War II. Charlie, an incipiently rebellious fourteen-year-old, is summering with his mother
and sister (his father is fighting in the Pacific) before going off to an expensive boarding school in the fall.
Although he intended to spend the summer loafing and socializing with his friends, the need for spending
money forces him to take a job as handyman for an iconoclastic, bohemian art teacher, Anna Trumbull, a
former member of the “upper crust” who has lost both her fortune and her regard for the ideals of her
upbringing. Sensing a kindred spirit in Charlie, she tries to stretch his mind by teaching him painting and
sculpture—and exposing him to “radical” ideas about life and love which, in time, persuade Charlie to
reject the notion of going back to school.
The result is a family crisis and, more specifically, a showdown
between Anna and Charlie’s conservative mother, a clash of philosophies which raises as many questions
as it answers and, in the end, stimulates the self-awareness which will shape the man Charlie is destined
to become.
Harvey
Directed by Christina Myatt
AD: Kylie Brees
SM: Arissa Khan
______________________________________
April 22nd & 23rd
Times - 7pm
Theatre Location - Mainstage
Elwood P. Dowd insists on including his friend Harvey in all of his sister Veta’s social gatherings.
Trouble is, Harvey is an imaginary six-and-a-half-foot-tall rabbit. To avoid future embarassment for her
family—and especially for her daughter, Myrtle Mae—Veta decides to have Elwood committed to a sanitarium. At the sanitarium, a frantic Veta explains to the staff that her years of living with Elwood’s hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also, and so the doctors mistakenly commit her instead of her
mild-mannered brother. The truth comes out, however; Veta is freed, and the search is on for Elwood,
who eventually arrives at the sanitarium of his own volition, looking for Harvey.
But it seems that Elwood and his invisible companion have had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only
at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn’t so bad after all.
SHOWS & EVENTS
Frozen Jr.
Directed by Caroline Sierk
AD/SM: Jae Jepsen
______________________________________
January 8th
Times: TBD
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Theatre Location - PVHS Black Box
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A story of true love and acceptance between sisters, Frozen Jr. expands upon the emotional relationship and journey between Princesses Anna and Elsa. When faced with danger, the two discover their hidden potential and the powerful bond of sisterhood.
SPEECH
IOWA HIGH SCHOOL SPEECH
ASSOCIATION COMPETITION
An opportunity for students to everything from sing a song to perform a scene from a play to give a speech!
Large Group Speech
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District - January 22
Spartan Showcase - January 31st at 7 PM
State - February 5th
All-State - February 19th
9th Grade One Act - Why Do We Laugh
By Stephen Gregg
Directed By Braeden Jackson
AD/SM: Elizabeth Hernandez
Mentor: Erin Klage
10-12 Grade One Act - Trifles
By Susan Glaspell
Directed by Harper Clark
AD/SM: Maddie Cox
Mentor: Christina Myatt
At age 6, Meredith Wilfred loves to tell people that she hates her neighbor, Andrew Powers. At age 16, she tells Andrew the same thing but goes to the dance with him anyway. At 45, Meredith and Andy have a great deal to tell each other: most married couples do. And, even at 66, Meredith is still learning about, and from, Andrew. This is a fine contest play because it is both easy to stage and a challenge. All eight
characters—two people at four different times in their lives—are onstage at the same time. The result is a play about love (and hate) and the way people change each other.
The play is loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell reported on while working as a journalist for the Des Moines Daily News. On December 2, 1900, Hossack's wife, Margaret, reported to the police that an unknown person broke into their house and murdered John with an axe while she slept next to him. Margaret was arrested for the murder a few days later at John's funeral. Glaspell followed the story closely and reported on its development, filing a total of twenty-six stories on the case over the course of Hossack's arrest and trial. Initially, Glaspell's reporting painted a rich portrait of Hossack as a formidable, cold-blooded woman, thoroughly capable of "having beaten [her husband's] brains out with an axe". However, after Glaspell visited the Hossack family farmhouse to gather materials for her next column, her tone shifted considerably. Subsequent reports from Glaspell showed Hossack under a much more sympathetic light as a meek woman who missed her children.
SPRING IMPROV NIGHT
March 31st
Time: 7 PM
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Theatre Location - PVHS Theater
Come join the PVHS Improv Squads as they make up an evening of fun and frivolity as they go!
Spartan Summer Theatrer TBD
High School Musical Jr.
JH Musical
Directed by Isabel Conner.
May 6th & 7th
Times - 7pm
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Theatre Location - Mainstage
It’s the first day after winter break at East High. The Jocks, Brainiacs, Thespians and Skater Dudes all
find their cliques. Basketball team captain and resident jock, Troy, discovers that the brainy Gabriella, a
girl he met singing karaoke on his ski trip, has just enrolled at East High. The couple cause an upheaval
when they decide to audition for the high school musical. Although many students resent the threat posed
to the "status quo," Troy and Gabriella’s alliance might just open the door for others to shine as well.
Falling
By Deanna Jent
Directed by Bella Vondracek
AD: Caleb Swinney
SM: Braeden Jackson
Mentor: Erin Klage
May 13th & 14th
Time - 7 PM
Theatre Location - PVHS Black Box
Drama Awards
Falling boldly explores the dynamic and complicated reality of a family with an autistic young man.
When a relative comes to visit, the entire family is thrown out of equilibrium, with everyone trying to
balance what is best for the family and what is best for them. The play bravely speaks a truth about love
and family and about hopes and dreams. It asks, “How do you love someone who is difficult to love?"
A time to come together as a community and celebrate the past year.
May 17th, 2021
Time - 7 PM
Theatre Location - PVHS Theater
