By Rozetta Locksa
After having successfully put on a socially distanced play in the fall, the Estrella Foothills High School Drama Club was ready to do it again. In a lot of different ways, 2020 was a difficult year for everyone, so the Drama teacher, Mrs. Tricia Schultz, decided that it would be a good idea to create a play with the students and staff about the struggles that people at EFHS faced.
“I wanted us to do a show that would help us all process how we felt about what has happened in the last year,” Schultz said. “I wanted it to be personal and about and for us, and the only way to do that was to have it come directly from us – the students, the families, and the teachers who have lived our EFHS 2020.”
The show is called ‘Our 2020.’ It is an ensemble show that features many stories set throughout the entire year of 2020. Each scene ranges from being about the dark moments that made people resent the year, the crazy events that made it weird, and the lighthearted moments that made people’s days better. The scenes are about the personal experiences that the writers chose to write about for the play.
One writer for the show, Ms. Cristy Waring, said “It felt good to tell my story. I chose to write about the things that affected me most during the past school year (both good and bad). There were things that were devastating not only for me, but also for my athletes and my students. I wanted people to see just how much teachers struggled to do what is best for not only themselves but for their students as well. I'm hoping that people who watch the play will be able to empathize and see that many of us were experiencing similar emotions and that we are not alone with our feelings.”
One writer, junior Zane Saunders, said “I wrote for the show because I felt like it. That’s it. There wasn’t much to it. I wrote what I did though, because I have a voice and I want to use it. I felt the need to speak up and talk about what I feel so that’s what I did.”
Molly Roberts, a sophomore who wrote for the play, said “I wanted to write for this show because, like everyone else, it hit really close to home. COVID-19 affected me in ways I didn't think possible, yet through it all, my friends and I were there for each other every step of the way. Focusing on the positive and talking to my friends is what got me through the hardest part of the pandemic, and if I can share my experience with an audience who can relate, then I would be humbled to do so.”
The process of writing and producing a show in less than two months is stressful. It was an entirely new experience for both the cast and crew alike. Bringing the show to life was a very emotional experience for everyone due to the personal material.
According to Roberts, who was also the stage manager, “It was actually a lot harder to do a show that was written by the actors instead of one done by a professional author,” she said. “I believe it's because we wrote about our experiences and opinions, and when we do, we like to throw in extra details or trail off from the script because we tell a story differently every time. However, that being said, it was also harder on an emotional level because we all wrote about things very near and dear to our hearts. It was almost like we were all made of glass, and we were seeing each other clearly and truly for the first time.”
The show ‘Our 2020’ had no audience due to coronavirus concerns, but it was recorded. It is available to watch privately on YouTube through this link https://youtu.be/bwBKsGvKXD4.