Theater Kids Switch With Athletes Ends In Disaster
Claire Daly
In an unprecedented twist of fate, the athletes traded in their cleats for tap shoes, and the theater kids swapped their scripts for sports gear, all for one chaotic and hilarious day. The quarterbacks struggled to memorize a monologue while the musical leads ran drills on the field–introducing two new worlds to students.
The rivalry between jocks and drama kids has been an ongoing stereotype for decades in American high schools. At MRHS, the theater teacher and sports coaches thought it would benefit the students if they got a taste of each other’s lives.
“We thought it would be a good idea to have a day so that the students could understand the hard work that goes into both departments of the school. Not only will it give them a new perspective of their peers, they will also learn new skills,” theater teacher Ms. Greffen explained.
Instead of attending their regular after school rehearsals or practices, the athletes were sent to the school auditorium while the theater students were directed to the stadium. The goal for the athletes was to perform Romeo and Juliet that night while the theater kids were to compete in a football game at the same time. These were not easy tasks for either group, so they had to put mountains of work into preparing for the night festivities that awaited them.
For many of the students, those preparation hours were intense and stressful. The athletes were sent to the theater hallway with their scripts to memorize. Most couldn’t memorize a page. They were then given a crash course on ballet, as the theater teacher decided to incorporate both straight theater and musical theater into the production to give the athletes the full experience. It was a painful afternoon for many as the athletes’ toes could be heard cracking in their ballet slippers.
“It hurt so bad and it was so humiliating. I had to use seven band-aids, my toes were bleeding so much. I’m surprised I didn’t break any,” senior and star quarterback Chad McLovin stated.
Meanwhile, the theater kids were fighting to keep up with the coach’s speed on the track. The coach reported that many of the students could barely make it past one lap. The students also claimed that the running was very harmful for their most essential instrument, their voice.
“When I was running outside, the cold air was so harsh on my throat. I genuinely thought I could never sing after that,” sophomore Britney Morse claimed.
Eventually, the eventful night had begun. People filled the auditorium seats as the athletes were rushingly trying to take one last look at their lines behind the curtain. The lights dimmed and the curtains opened, revealing the placekicker in center stage with large sweat splotches on his costume. He was barely two phrases into the prologue before running off in tears; an emotional start to a soon-to-be aggressive play. The music began for the next scene and the running backs were seen in silhouette, slowly making their way across the stage on relevé in their frilly ballet slippers and tutus. The play, however, took a turn for the worst when one of them tripped and caused the other three to fall. Chaos ensued as the audience burst into laughter and two of the running backs laid on the ground in pain yelling, “Medic! Medic!”
The other two were seen turning a bright red, presumably embarrassed. This caused an emotional outburst from both of them, leading to an intense fight breaking out. More and more of the athletes emerged from backstage to join the brawl. It was quite the scene as set pieces broke and audience members screamed, running out of the auditorium.
At the same time, some of the theater kids were also having a hard time. The football game ended in bruises and injuries, as the theater students thought it would be better to beat the other team with dramatic monologues rather than touchdowns. Rather than tackling the opposing football players, some of the students attempted to serenade them with tunes from the Sound of Music and Mary Poppins while others tried to use lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Finding that that strategy was not effective, many escaped to join the cheerleading team.
Although the outcome of this experiment did not have as quite a positive outcome as the staff had hoped, some of the students did admit that there were some benefits that came with it. The athletes expressed praise towards the theater kids, saying that they could not imagine being able to not get stage fright and to memorize all of their lines. The theater kids relayed how impressed they were with how the athletes were able to withstand the cardio and stamina needed to succeed in sports. In the end, the swap of the athletes and theater kids at MRHS was a good idea.