The Highland Players were founded in 2007 by Montrose Academy English Department Chair and teacher, Jennifer Bogut. This theatre group started out by performing selected scenes from four of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays – Hamlet, Henry V, Macbeth, and Much Ado About Nothing – in our school’s first annual Shakespeare Festival. The interest generated by this Festival led to our afterschool Shakespeare Reading Group declaring, “Hey, let’s put on Much Ado About Nothing – the whole play!” We had auditions for the 20+ roles in Much Ado in the spring of 2007, then the real work began! The cast began rehearsals as soon as school was out in May and devoted their entire summer vacation to memorizing lines, learning how to walk with swords attached to their belts, and even learning Italian Renaissance court dances! Although several of our actors and actresses had previous experience in other plays, all of them had to learn that “acting Shakespeare” is all about the words and clues Shakespeare gave the actors within the text, and is very different from the method acting used by modern actors. They learned about the importance of scansion and figurative language and oftentimes felt like they were back in an English classroom! But they all determined that it was worthwhile…once they got a taste of the spotlight! Our performances of Much Ado About Nothing were September 10th and 11th, 2007, at the East City Park stage…Shakespeare in the Park! The Highland Players finally got to see the rewards of their hard work as these two performances entertained and impressed the audience that gathered in lawn chairs under the trees. Montrose Academy's mascot is the Scottish Highlander because our school is named for a famous Scotsman, James Graham, the first Marquess of Montrose. According to the wonderful book by C.V. Wedgwood, Montrose "was a figure of true heroism and nobility who struggled for years against the anti-royalist forces of Civil War Scotland." So from our school's namesake came the name of our drama troupe! In the spring of 2008 Jennifer decided to make the Highland Players a separate entity from Montrose Academy. It is her desire for the Highland Players to reach out to more young people in the community who do not have theatrical opportunities, either with homeschooling or at their own schools. With the blessing of the Montrose Academy board and administration, she made the Highland Players their own theatre troupe that would exist independently from the school. As a teacher at Montrose, however, Jennifer keeps the Highland Players closely involved with Montrose, and has added a Theatre Arts class which benefits not just Highland Players but anyone at Montrose who is interested in learning more about theatre.   Our 2008 spring production of the famous Agatha Christie murder mystery, And Then There Were None, was great fun for all involved...including the director, Chuck Morrow, and his wife, Stacy. "Most would say theatre is about artistic expression and entertaining an audience. Our cast will also tell you it's about having as much fun as we can along the way!" One of the best parts of any production is remembering all of the funny stories that happened during rehearsals...a blooper reel of sorts...if only a camera had been rolling at the time: * At an early practice, JD (Dr. Armstrong) called the woman he killed during a surgery "country-fried," rather than "countrified." JD's folks (the Morrows) consider this to have been a classic "haven't-had-lunch-yet" blooper!
* It never ceased to amuse Bree (and make her giggle) to say her line, "Dressing for dinner tonight will be optional." * Everyone's favorite mistake during a dress rehearsal was a scene we wish we could have included in the final performance as it made such a dramatic statement. When Kayla (Amy Marston) dies on stage from poison in her glass, she falls dead to the stage...during one rehearsal, however, she dropped her glass and it smashed into a million tiny pieces! What an exit! Unfortunately, the need for a ShopVac to clean up all the tiny pieces would have ruined the mood during an actual performance! * Hannah (Vera Claythorne) looking for the revolver in Wesley's (Philip Lombard's) pocket was always fun to watch during the early rehearsals!  "Louder and slower..." - the Director's Mantra!     Fun memories of waiting for performances to begin, as well as chillin' at rehearsals... "Wait a minute...Why aren't you all studying your lines?!?" Our spring 2009 play, Hocus Pocus, was performed April 3rd and 4th at All Souls Christian Church. The seven cast members did outstanding jobs in this fun and wacky English play, written by Jack Popplewell. As with the 2008 spring play, And Then There Were None, Chuck Morrow directed Hocus Pocus, thus giving our Players an opportunity to learn from a director with a great deal of theatrical background and knowledge, and additionally, escape Mrs. Bogut's Shakespearean clutches!  The story of twin brothers - one a sedate, naive vicar named Simon, the other a dashing rogue businessman named Peter - and how they end up saving one another from certain financial doom is the crux of Hocus Pocus. In probably his toughest role(s) yet, Joey Renner starred as both brothers, which meant he not only had to switch costumes regularly backstage, but also had to switch his character and mannerisms (and learn over 1,100 lines, but hey, who's counting?). In addition to Joey's top-notch performance, Hocus Pocus also featured "the Guyer Girls" - Hannah and Kayla, starring as Janet and Bella, respectively. Janet starts out as the "frumpy" friend of Simon the Vicar, while Bella begins the play as the dancer girlfriend of Peter the Rogue. By the end of the play, both girls have undergone transformations - metamorphoses, if you will - into the ladies they really wanted to be. And, of course, they get the right guy in the end! The rest of the cast - Christian O'Bryan as Harry, Creed Thie as Luther Gates, Gunn Wilson as Knebworth, Maggie Gressard as Miss Vincent, and London Smalldridge as Mrs. Gravestock - all gave stellar performances and rounded out a great play and a great cast!  Macbeth was our choice for the summer of 2009, despite a few concerns that maybe it was too dark of a play to capture young people's interests. In addition, I think people thought that tragedy was a bit much for this young theatre troupe...I am happy to say, however, that the Palouse Highland Players exceeded all expectations and did an amazing job with "the Scottish play!" Not only was this our first tragedy, but this was our biggest cast so far - 28 actors, ranging in age from 9 to 50ish - and everyone pulled together, worked hard, and did wonderfully well! This was also our first time doing any sort of fight choreography, and I have to hand it to our lead actor, Wesley O'Bryan, who not only learned over 700 lines for his role as Macbeth, but also managed the fight sequences - teaching and choreographing, with the help of R.D. Blair, our set designer. The final fight scene between Macbeth and Macduff, played by Chase Guyer, was outstanding and fun to watch, over and over again!  One thing occurred that caused us to think the curse of the Scottish Play might be true - this was the first summer that we got rained out of East City Park! All summer long, I insisted that there was nothing to the curse - said "Macbeth" out loud more times than I can count, especially since it's rather difficult to direct a play called Macbeth without ever saying "Macbeth"! But the weather forecast for Opening Night said that we were in for some serious thunder storms, so I made the decision to move our production to All Souls Church, our backup plan. With only 5 hours until curtain, our cast and crew arrived (and Mr. Brian Thie - thank you, Brian!!) to set up the lights, sound system, set, backstage with props, costumes, etc., etc., etc. Everyone worked so hard getting ready - Wesley even had to figure out how much of the opening battle scene could fit on a smaller stage! At this point, I had no idea what our opening night performance would be like - we had never rehearsed at All Souls, so I figured there might be some problems, fumbles, or rough patches...boy, was I wrong! It was a flawless performance - everyone got their entrances and exits right, handled the smaller stage with ease...I was so proud I could hardly stand it! Macbeth confirmed for me that the Palouse Highland Players had truly gone beyond being a team - they became a family! 2010 will be a year full of firsts - our first co-production with another theatre troupe (The Miracle Worker with Stage Door Theatre, directed by Kimberly Borst); our first season with 3 plays (The Miracle Worker, You Can't Take It With You, and A Midsummer Night's Dream); and our first Shakespeare in the Park production with 6 performances! The Miracle Worker will be March 3-6, Chuck Morrow's production of You Can't Take It With You will be in April, and the Dream will be July 30 through August 7! As Artistic Director, I am also excited to announce that the Palouse Highland Players are working toward obtaining their 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, which will allow us to apply for grant funding. The PHPs are growing steadily and we are excited to have you join us! Please contact me, Jennifer Bogut, at either themogut@gmail.com or 310-6915 with questions! |
A History of the Highland Players |