Ninth grade students enrolled in the first semester Acting course performed in a scene night Tuesday. The performance took place in the Katzenberg Black Box Theatre at 7 p.m. and was directed by performing arts teacher Jim Doughan.

The class of nine students put on the piece “Stay Carl Stay” by Peter Tolan, who is a friend of Doughan’s. The piece follows a young woman named Caroline who is taken for granted by her boyfriend Brian. Madness results when she begins to drift away from her boyfriend and becomes closer to her talking dog, Carl.

With just six roles in the piece, multiple students were cast in each role and then portrayed more than one role during the show. Doughan assigned each character a specific costume piece so that audience members could decipher which character was which in each scene.

When not performing in a scene, actors sat in a semicircle in the back of the stage, watching the action in front of them. Along with the minimal set design, this choice emphasized the smaller-scale nature of the event and brought the audience closer to the story explored during the performance.

“Being a part of scene night was so much fun,” performer Raisa Effress ‘23 said. “Even though it was a small show, I’ve always loved the feeling of performing in front of an audience. It was the perfect culmination of everything we’ve worked on this semester in Acting.”

The audience, consisting mostly of family and friends of the actors, responded extremely well to the performance. Many stayed after the show to congratulate Doughan and the actors on a job well done.

“I had a really great time watching the performance on Tuesday,” Emily Malkan ‘23 said. “It’s pretty interesting and fun to see your friends who you know so well as completely different characters.”

A new group of students will begin the second semester Acting course, which will also conclude in another showcase scene night. It will be exciting to see what interesting scenes or pieces will be selected for students to perform.