In the beginning of October, the black boxes, two student productions, performed “The A.I. Play” and “Warning: Looks May Kill!” “The A.I. Play” is a story about a girl named Eleanor who runs out of time to write her essay on “The Great Gatsby” due to being on her phone, and uses A.I. to write it for her. The essay was so good that the principal of her high school sent her to a special genius school. While there, she meets other students who have also used A.I. to get into the school. They then discover that the school is not actually a school, but a prison, and they try to escape.
Dane Calnicean, directed and wrote the black box “Warning: Looks May Kill!”, a comedy about a fashion school mystery. A nerdy kid named Alexander, who is a new student, is being framed for the murder of his bully, Jason. The police officers who investigated him found and read through his journal, which details his time navigating the “style high club,” which is the school’s fashion team. The journal leads them through everything he has done to get where he is at.
“The A.I. Play” was directed by senior Mason Burley. He was very passionate about this production, as theater has been a big part of his life.
“I love it so much, and it’s my favorite thing in the world,” Burley said.
He claimed that it was really fun working with everyone, although there are a lot of difficult things like making sure that everything gets put on the stage at different times. Burley loved to see it all come together. Although it is a lot of work, the students always try to make a great production.
“Mainly memorizing, and having a short amount of time,” Ben Costello, the lead actor in “Warning: Looks May Kill!” said, referring to some of his issues for this production.
Blackboxes are ran by students, which makes it a little more challenging but just as fun. They take a lot of time and effort, especially with the amount of time the students have to get it all set up and ready. The stress that comes with the student ran system, wanting everything to be perfect, and the different perspective of you being in charge instead of someone being in charge of you, can be very difficult.
“These students have worked really hard and they deserve to have a great audience,” Amanda Malo, the drama teacher, said.
Those wishes came true due to the black boxes being sold out both nights, and having to add as many chairs as they could. The students run blackboxes two different times per year. The next black box of the school year will perform in the March.