Drama will present their annual Fall play, Sherlock Holmes in the FVHS auditorium on Thursday, Nov. 16 through Saturday, Nov. 18 at 7 pm. The admission fee for the play will be $5 for students and $10 for adults. Tickets can be bought through the link in the bio of fvhs_theatre on Instagram.
The plot is a classic mystery that’s trying to be solved by Sherlock Holmes, who’s trying to be stopped by the villain, Moriarty, in the streets of London. Sherlock’s sidekick, Watson, is also in the show and there will be a love interest for Sherlock. The basis for what happens comes down to whether Moriarty or Sherlock wins in the end.
A total of 97 actors and technicians are a part of the play. The lead roles are Dominic Sicola as Sherlock Holmes, Kirin Smith as Professor Moriarty, Ben Suber as Dr. Watson and Katelyn Aaron as Alice Faulkner.
Parts were chosen through auditions, which usually takes up a few days for a normal play. Prospective actors present a monologue to the drama and technical theater teacher, Paige MacGovern, and from there, MacGovern calls back those that interest her for roles in the play and have them read from the script. A similar process goes on with tech crew.
Productions are chosen by MacGovern before the season starts because a lot goes into the process of just getting a play chosen alone. Many different versions have to be read through, and then the process of getting the rights to the play takes a while.
“[I started] looking at some of the mysteries, and so I was reading some old, traditional plays and found Sherlock,” MacGovern said.
The process for making plays happen is also expensive. The drama department gets their budget mostly from ticket sales from the previous play that went on. This budget goes towards purchasing rights, costumes, sets and equipment.
After a cast and set crew are chosen, preparation for the play takes place. Actors work on rehearsal, set crew work with the equipment and create the set, and MacGovern acts as the director.
“There are a lot of moving parts, and it’s really cool to see them all come together,” said MacGovern.
