The Tower Players Prepare for “Jekyll and Hyde”

by Madeline

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It takes a lot to put together a play, such as costumes, scenes, lighting, and music.   It also takes the work of many people, including cast, crew and the one person who puts everything together, the director.  Each year, the RFH Tower Players puts on a spring musical production which includes  superb vocals and beautiful sets, all preformed and designed by RFH students with the assistance of a few teachers and volunteers.

For their 2012 production, the Tower Players will present Jekyll and Hyde.  The musical, originally created by Steve Cuden and Frank Wildhorn,  is based on the 1886 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It takes place in London during the late 1800s, and is about a doctor (Dr. Jekyll) who experiments with human personality and creates a murderous doppelgänger, Edward Hyde.

This play has been preformed on both Broadway and local theaters. The Tower Players’s production of Jekyll and Hyde will be performed on March 23 to the 25^th at 7:30pm.

Seven years ago, the Count Basie Theater, located in Red Bank, started the Basie Awards, a ceremony celebrating the hard work and dedication of the teachers, directors, and students involved in high school productions. Last year, there were over 25 schools nominated from Monmouth County. Actors and tech crew members are always excited for this coveted award.  The RFH students really anticipate these award ceremonies, and have won many in the past. This year’s award ceremony will be on May 23.

The Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards is another ceremony in which the RFH drama department is nominated. This ceremony highlights many components of the production of high school plays, including sets, costumes, actors, directors, tech crew, and others. The Rising Star award is a state-wide competition, based off of the well-known Tony Awards, which is Broadway’s theater award ceremony. The Rising Star awards also includes five scholarships, which go to students who plan to study theater in college, as well as one for a student who aspires to work with the technical aspects of the theater.

These talented students and teachers deserve recognition for all of their hard work and dedication to the arts. Each year, students stay after school and come in on the weekends to rehearse. They spend countless hours memorizing lines, adjusting spotlights, and painting props. The Tower Players are involved in a verity of award shows that showcase these students’ accomplishments.  The Tower Review wishes them the best of luck this upcoming performance season.

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