By Emery Lewis, Opinion Editor
As El Camino got ready for finals week and the upcoming break, EC’s drama program put on their first play of the year “Winter Break,” which had its performances on Dec. 14 through 16 in The Performing Arts Center.
The play was directed by the new drama teacher Michael DiSalvo and had about 19 students who worked hard to put on a great show.
The play started off by showing high school students in their monotonous school-life, passing through the halls and sitting in class waiting for their winter break to begin.
It then goes on to a scene of two students who are looking at the sky, alone with each other. Every scene in the play, other than the first and last, are scenes with about two to four students. Each group of students are dealing with an issue of their own. One student is going through a breakup, another is grieving the loss of her father, some are facing fears, while others are confronting feelings they have ignored.
Each scene allowed the audience to get a glimpse of all the different situations each individual is dealing with. This play battles the topics of anxiety, sexuality, abuse and grief from the perspective of teenagers who are learning to navigate their lives.
Tanner Eddenfield (‘24), who played Dylan in “Winter Break,” believed the play to be about the connections between people and, and explains how each scene showed a different problem that was being dealt with by each character.
“All of us have our own stuff going on. We all have our own struggles and trials. But at the end, we were all together,” Eddenfield said.
The edn of the play circles back to the first two students that were introduced, who were stargazing in the snow. The scene started with just the two of them but eventually each student that was shown in the separate scenes walked by and decided to join them. The group of students grew until eventually all the students were together again.
Mick Schrodetzki (‘25), who played Sam, discussed how the play emphasized community. They also spoke about the community they became a part of while rehearsing for the play.
“Theater is a pretty tight knit community–There’s always one person who you weren’t friends with, but are now friends with because of the show,” they said.
DiSalvo mentioned that he got good feedback about the play with around 250 tickets sold, which he is happy about.
“People seemed really happy with it. I thought it was very well received,” DiSalvo stated.
The upcoming musical “Urinetown” will be playing on March 14 through 16. For more information about the drama class or club, talk to DiSalvo in room S-3.
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