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WCA Drama Team Puts On Stellar Weekend Performances

It was an aggressive plan…put on a full drama production with a drama cast and crew spread across all three school levels, with a first year drama director, and with a process that would require 100% script, score and character development from scratch…. a completely improvisational production. But what should have been extremely difficult to accomplish was nonetheless accomplished this past weekend not only well, but with a level of precision, poise and polish one would not have thought possible but for the grace of God just four months ago. Which makes it even more certain that His hand was all over “How to Color Your Cardboard Box: A Story of City Streets and Broadway Thieves”.

The play is set in the rough and tumble streets of New York City with a band of homeless kids, who have named themselves ‘The God Squad’ for the fact that they are all faithful Christians  despite their difficult circumstances. Led by their leader Nate (Nathan Watson, 5th grade), Pip (Madison DeRose, 1st Grade), Keeks (Grace Lee, 3rd Grade), Del (Alayna De La Garza, 3rd grade), and Coco (Lola Geoffrey, 5th grade) are desperately trying to find a way off the streets when they believe they have found one by selling Coco’s Script for Broadway to a Producer, only to be hoodwinked by the nefarious Nelly (Lindsey Flanagan, 12th grade), and her cohorts Bertha (Kailey Watson, 9th) and Blaire (Laura Reese, 9th).

While navigating through run-ins with the rival West Side gang of bullies (Zane Eckols, 10th, Madison Oakley, 8th, Alex Ogaard, 3rd), and conversing with Joe, the local Shoeshine King (Mr. Dan Stec, faculty), the crew adds a member when it discovers Abigail (Kathryn Bjers, 9th), a recent arrival to the City in search of her long lost sister. Though their faith is tested by Nelly’s discovered theft (despite Blaire’s objections) of Coco’s valuable script , they are uplifted by a local street performing guitarist (Mrs. Chelsea Meisinger, Faculty), and with her encouragement, hatch a plan to recover the script from Nelly.

Posing as a wealthy film producer, Coco, perched atop Keeks shoulders in a full length trenchcoat, nearly regain the script by playing upon Nelly’s greed, but the God Squad is uncovered when Coco loses her balance and falls from Keek’s shoulders. When all seems lost, they are rescued by Joe, the Shoeshine King, a.k.a undercover Detective Joe of the NYPD, who in conjunction with embedded Detective Blaire have been running a sting to capture Nelly for defrauding local playwrights through trickery. He and Blaire also inform the gang that the city has decided to convert the old abandoned apartment building to supervised housing units for their whole group. When asked why Detective Blaire was so eager to help, she recounted a memory from her youth of her mother singing a certain tune to her.  Abigail is stunned as she has the same memory…… ironically, Blaire is Abigail’s long lost sister.

The story concludes with the gang living in their new housing and Blaire and Abigail visiting to watch the first episode of a new show conceptualized by Coco, recently picked up by the networks. When the show airs, it is none other than Nelly and Bertha, telling ‘their side’ of the story from the prison in which they have just been nabbed in a second botched attempt to escape.

The true magic in the script and casting was the performers comfort in the roles, which were all improvisationally developed by them. Young DeRose gave a shockingly adept performance and showed fantastic control over her lines at such a young age. All of the God Squad (deRose, Lee, De La Garza, Watson, Geoffrey) were very natural in their roles, and one would never know that none had ever had a major part before in youth theater. Nathan Watson, in particular, showed off some poised singing chops in his duet with Dan Stec.

Zane Eckols gave a superb performance as the bullying GW, the snarky and sarcastic leader of the West Side gang, who comes to see the light and help the God Squad after young Pip prays for God to help him with his fears. His sidekicks (Madison Oakley and Alex Ogaard) hammered home the sarcasm with great line delivery themselves.

Kathryn Bjers’ singing of “Love, Me” was a velvety performance that lent an emotional element to a scene of separation. And her short duet in her reunion with Laura Reese’s Blaire later was heartwarming.

Of course, the veteran of the crew, Lindsey Flanagan, was hilarious in her first largely comedy role in a WCA stage production. Flanagan, who had a major role in Annie as Grace Farrell, and the lead role of Cinderella in the production her sophomore year of the same name. The role of Nelly was certainly a departure from each of these demure and elegant roles, as Nelly’s brash and loudmouth antics were virtually 180 degrees out from either of those prior roles. Together with her partner in crime Bertha, given a heavily dosed eastern European accent by Kailey Watson, the two had well-timed and fluid comedic chemistry.

All the performances above were artfully guided and directed by WCA’s new Drama Director, Mrs. Cathy Naylor. But don’t let the term new fool you…Cathy has been directing drama, particularly youth drama, in local public schools for many years in Williamsburg. To such an extent that the mention of her name to anyone in the drama community in Williamsburg will usually title her accomplishments spectacular if not legendary. She has directed similar dinner theatre events in past years, most recently at Waller Mill Elementary, all with similarly rave reviews. She arrived at WCA this year due to her profound desire to share her faith in Jesus Christ with her students, which was not permitted in her public school positions.

Lest we forget, the behind the scenes work of both crew and volunteers was instrumental in bringing the play to life, including Sound and Lights technician Evan Henley, stage manager Connor Sullivan, and stage crewmembers Hayden Zima and Gavin Maggio. Brilliant set design was a group effort, guided by the artistic hand of our Lower and Middle School Art Instructor Mrs. Linda Guntharp, who with the help of several volunteers, most notably Shawn Flanagan and Leisa Eckols, transformed our bright and sunny cafeteria into a colorful blend of city sights and graffiti-like murals.

The overwhelming feeling left with many attendees was that WCA Drama is in good hands and has substantial growth potential for MANY years to come. Many of these younger actors will continue to mature and improve, and some will have almost a decade to hone their craft!

We hope to have a viewable version of the play to be edited and posted soon on Youtube which was video recorded Friday evening , and will let you all know via the website and Eaglegram when it is ready. We also have a copy of the virtual Playbill here.

For those parents, cast members or fans of the production who would like a handsome memento of the play, we are selling the handcrafted centerpieces from the tables for just $10 in the main office!