Ms. Carota’s Theater Extra help group has worked hard to put on a showcase filled with scenes, monologues, songs, and improvisations.  

The Theater Extra Help group was designed for students who either do not have room in their schedule to take theater but still want to be a part of it or students who are already in the theater course and would like to do more. The group meets after school on Fridays.  

We have decided to host this variety show to showcase our talents and promote the theater program. The group consists of Ryan Daly as our Master of Ceremonies, Sadie Wisniewski performing a piece from the show “Gilmore Girls”, Isabella Balcarcel performing an original piece about what it’s like growing up with autism, Gabe LaBarbara performing the song “Waving through a Window” from Dear Evan Hansen, Taylor Berenz performing the monologue “Arthur the Unfallen”, Dylan Zimmerman performing “To Be or Not To Be”, a surprise improvisational skit between Ryan Daly and Iyanna DeJesus, a skit from The Bird Cage performed by Taylor Berenz and Ethan Moraitakis, Kate Marin Performing the monologue “Cat Cool”, and to take us home we have Ethan Moraitakis performing “Midsummer Night’s Dream”.  

The preparation process: 

In the weeks leading up to the final performance we met once or twice a week to rehearse. We did run throughs during this time and worked out various kinks that may come up during the performance. Our school librarians created a QR code for anyone who wanted to attend the performance where they filled out their name and the name of the performer they are supporting. We also made sure to put the acts in an orderly manner to keep the flow of the variety show. For example, we want to keep some of the heavy pieces towards the middle and the lighter pieces towards the very beginning/end.  

Ms. Carota (advisor of the group) states: “The Theater Extra Help student actors have been eagerly preparing for our showcase!” 

Kate Marin (student actor in showcase) suggests: “With only approximately 30 minutes for each rehearsal, and the number of students able to attend varying due to outside obligations, I feel extremely proud with all the extraordinary performances that all our members have given into their pieces.” 

Final Performance: 

The start time for the performance was 2:30. All the kids from the theater group got there at 2:00 to set up and get ready. The guests started arriving between 2:15-2:25. After everyone was seated our Master of Ceremonies welcomed everyone and introduced our first act. Between the members inviting family members and friends we ended up with about 25 guests.  

Many of our actors were a little nervous when we started, but as it went down everyone became more comfortable. Our audience members were very respectful and supportive. They also enjoyed the showcase very much.  

The whole thing was very dynamic in the sense that we had some acts that were heavy and serious and some that were just downright comedy. A highlight of our variety was we had Iyanna DeJesus act as though she was an audience member and got up during the show and ‘pretended’ to complain to our emcee and they had a whole debate. This was in fact part of our showcase! The idea of it was to demonstrate an improvisational skit. At first, some people thought it was real while others caught onto the bit early on.  

Right before it ended, we all took a bow and thanked Ms. Carota for putting all this together for us. Everyone poured their heart and soul into their performance. Overall, it was a tremendous success and the actors, and the audience members enjoyed it very much.