The Cynthia-Berry Ted Douce Performing Arts Center encompasses high tech equipment and passionate drama students who will showcase a Night of Scenes on Nov. 1 and 2. The drama production will feature scenes directed, choreographed and performed almost entirely by students and being led by the new drama teacher, Chase Cashion.

Despite the challenges of being hired only weeks before the start of the school year, Cashion aims to make a creative and successful experience that will bring more involvement to the theater program. The first production he initiated was a Night of Scenes, a showcase which merges students of all grade levels and allows them to branch out with their creative freedom and grow as performers.

“I really tried to give the students the creative freedom to work on whatever they wanted to,” Cashion said. “This is a showcase we haven’t done in years, but 10 years ago this was an annual tradition from Lake Brantley drama because it’s a step away from what we typically do.

As a Lake Brantley alumni and long term member of Troupe 2888, Cashion guides the cast and crew of Night of Scenes through the directing procedures. For many students, directing is a new environment which poses various challenges within itself. Although the process of picking a scene and bringing it to life from an avant garde perspective is uncharted territory for many of the students, the unfamiliarity is offsetted by the unique component it brings to the show.

“What’s challenging is getting everyone together to rehearse and making sure everyone knows their lines,” Student Director and Assistant Stage Manager sophomore Laney Rosenblatt said. “Also, just coordinating the whole thing and having the ideas for blocking in your head and making sure it will look good from an audience perspective.”

Aside from being a returning tradition, Night of Scenes will bring a mixture of scenes and musical dance routines from a number of famous shows, as well as including more underclassmen in the production, setting a trend for future shows. 

“You can expect a lot of variations within styles and productions,” Student Director and performer senior Isabel Henderson said. “You’ll have some comedic some dramatic. You’re gonna have some musical numbers that are just absolutely crazy with their choreography. There is just such a wide variation so you have to get yourself ready to bounce back and forth from all of these different styles which I think is super cool.

Taking a step back from the routine play from a famous show in the fall, the Drama Department is looking forward to being able to display their talents in other artistic and impressive ways through Night of Scenes. The show will consist of a variety of short scenes, musical dance numbers and a pantomime, amongst other dramatic and comedic pieces performed by drama students.

“The expectation is to be really good,” Cashion said. “It’s my first year, it’s their first year working with me, their first experience working with me. But we try to make sure that everything we put out on that stage is really high quality, and that’ll always be the expectation.”