Drama

The HCHS Drama program focuses on Classical Theater, Musical Theater, Modern Drama and Drama for Worship. Annually, three productions are presented: a Shakespearean work in the fall, an all-school musical and a spring production (either musical or drama). Along with drama classes, the curriculum also offers experience in technical theater, set design and building, sound and lighting engineering and costuming.

Summer Drama Camps are held in June and July for current and prospective students.

Click here to download the Kiss Me, Kate Calendar and Kiss Me, Kate Schedule.

Kiss Me, Kate

January 22nd , 23rd & 24th at 7:00 pm and January 24th & 25th at 2:30 pm.

To purchase tickets now online, please click: http://public.serviceu.com/ticketing/default.asp?orgID=11228

Another Op'nin' Another Show welcomes you to Baltimore and to the opening of a musical version of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." The cast is on stage and receiving final instructions from Fred Graham, the director. A play-within-a-play unfolds, where each of the four main cast member's on-stage performance is complicated by what is happening in his off-stage life. Fred takes the roles of director and male lead, Petruchio. His ex-wife Lilli, now a movie star with a reputation for being difficult to work with, plays Katharine, the shrew. Fred's current love interest, Lois, plays the role of Bianca, and the other man in Lois' life, Bill, plays the role of Lucentio.

Before the curtain rises on "The Shrew" we find out that Bill has a gambling problem. He tells Lois that he signed a $10,000 IOU for a debt in Fred's name, instead of using his own name. Not long after Lois begs Bill to stop gambling, two thugs show up at the theater to make it clear that Bill will have to make good on that IOU. But they confront Fred instead of Bill, since Fred's name is on the gambling debt. Lois asks Bill Why Can't You Behave? Fred and Lilli reminisce nostalgically about their other performances together, and their warm feelings for each other return -Wunderbar. When flowers sent by Fred to Lois mistakenly get delivered to Lilli, Lilli falls even more deeply in love with Fred -So in Love.

We are brought into Shakespeare's world with We Open in Venice. It is not long before we are told that Lucentio (Bill) may not marry his love Bianca (Lois), until Bianca's older sister Katharine (Lilli) the shrew is married off. Bianca enjoys flirting with her gentlemen callers in Tom, Dick or Harry. Fortunately for Bianca and Lucentio, Petruchio (Fred) comes to town looking for a wealthy wife and is not scared off by Katharine. Petruchio explains his goal in I've Come to Wive It Wealthily in Padua and Katharine makes her feelings clear in I Hate Men. Lilli finally discovers that the flowers Fred sent her were actually intended for Lois, and we hear her shriek in outrage from offstage. In Were Thine That Special Face Petruchio sings of his strong feelings for Katharine. Lilli threatens to walk out of the show, but is forced to stay. Fred convinces the two gangsters that he will be able to pay them the money he allegedly owes them, if they can make sure Lilli continues to play her role. The gangsters put on costumes and become part of the cast of "The Shrew" to stay close to Lilli. Lilli uses her anger toward Fred to express herself as Katharine for the rest of the show. Fred is forced to get tough with Katharine as he plays Petruchio. Kiss Me, Kate closes the first act.

The second act opens with Too Darn Hot, which gives the cast a chance to relax outside the theatre during intermission. Back at "The Shrew" Petruchio marries Katharine, and already misses his relatively peaceful single life in Where Is the Life That Late I Led? Lois and Bill sing of their relationship in Always True to You (In My Fashion) and then Bill sings Bianca. When the gangsters call their boss to 'check in,' they find out that the boss has been killed. This makes Bill's IOU worthless, so the gangsters can leave. Lilli takes the opportunity to walk off the show, and leaves with her dependable fiance Harrison, as Fred reprises So in Love. The gangsters get caught up in the limelight and pay an unusual tribute to Shakespeare in Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Bianca and Lucentio are finally married. As "The Taming of the Shrew" comes to a close, Lilli unexpectedly returns to the stage, and in Katharine's words expresses her intention of returning to Fred -I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple. Lilli and Fred are reunited, and Lois and Bill are together.

You Can't Take It With You

April 29th & 30th and May 1st & 2nd at 7:30 pm with a 2:30 pm matinee on May 2nd

The Vanderhof family at the center of You Can't Take It with You is a collection of cheerful and erratic (yet lovable) incompetents. First, there's Grandpa Martin Vanderhof, the salty and philosophical patriarch of this wacky family and a man who made his peace with the world, if not the Internal Revenue Service, long ago. Then there is his daughter, Penelope Sycamore (a cheerful and unpublished playwright, at least at the moment) and her husband, Paul (who happily manufactures fireworks in the cellar). The third generation consists of Penelope and Paul's daughters and son-in-law: Essie Carmichael (the eternally optimistic, and inept, ballerina), her husband Ed (who has a passion for printing presses and xylophones), and Alice. Seemingly the only normal character in the household is Alice, a Wall Street secretary.

Into this whirlwind of activity comes Tony Kirby, Alice's boyfriend, the son of her boss, and the epitome of normality and success in the business world. Tony is amused by Alice's family and loves Alice in spite of the craziness in the family home. Alice, on the other hand, is sometimes merely chagrined, sometimes mortified by what happens when she brings Tony to the house. Despite the differences between the two families, Alice and Tony are soon engaged, and (over Alice's protests) a dinner party is planned for Tony's parents—at the Vanderhof home. Alice, of course, has misgivings about bringing Tony's strait-laced parents into this maelstrom of activity: as she explained when she introduced Tony to her family: “I want him to take you in easy doses. I've tried to prepare him a little, but don't make it any worse than you can help.” The family assures Alice that they will be on their best behavior, and the night is set.

However, as with most things in the Vanderhof family, things don't go exactly as planned. Tony arrives with his parents in tow—but mistakenly arrives the night before the planned dinner party. And the Vanderhof tribe, rather than being on their best behavior are at their unplanned and hilarious worst. The Kirbys, predictably, are appalled at the wild unorthodoxy of the Vanderhofs, which presently results in the arrest of the family—and of the Kirbys themselves. Alice, convinced that the two families will never get along, determines to leave hers; but Tony, seeing something deeper in the family that his parents or perhaps even Alice don't see, tries in vain to dissuade her and explains that he brought his parents to the party a night early on purpose: “I wanted [my parents] to see a real family—as they really were. A family that loved and understood each other.”

The Kirbys are angry at their son and disturbed that he could love such a family, but he insists that he still wants to marry Alice. Everything, eventually, is brought back to the important center by Grandpa, as he talks to Mr. Kirby and to Tony about what is really important and teaches everyone some vital lessons about life: “You've got all the money you need. You can't take it with you… And what's it got you? Same kind of mail every morning, same kind of deals, same kind of meetings, same dinners at night, same indigestion. Where does the fun come in? Don't you think there ought to be something more… We haven't got too much time, you know--any of us.”