Troupe 5577 Continues to Influence WSHS Culture

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Riley Hazel, Lead Staff Writer

At Winter Springs High School, there are many clubs and organizations that are offered and open to new faces. As the college admission process becomes increasingly selective, counselors and administrators are urging students to engage in their school environment to stand out from the pool of applicants during the college admission process. The Theatre program provides another option students can take to enhance their high school resumes.

Students in the program develop strong bonds. According to Lance LaBonte, who is a heavily-active participant in the program since his sophomore year, Theatre is a family. Ashlee Golden, who’s been a part of the program since her freshman year and has performed in many of Troupe 5577’s productions and who is also one of the student directors of the upcoming production, describes the program as a community. Both students suggest anyone interested in Theatre start off taking Introduction to Drama or Theatre 1. If a student is really invested in the performing arts, Golden recommends to enroll in the Improv class.

The Winter Springs Theatre Company is certainly a tight-knit group due to the number of hours they work together, inside and outside of school. Their upcoming production, The Complete Works of Williams Shakespeare (Abridged) (Revised) has been in the works for several months.

The process to put on a high school production of this magnitude does take some time. LaBonte says it has been a process. First, it starts off with picking the play, which is done by Ms. Jennifer Devine, WSHS drama teacher and the director of the WSHS Theatre and Thespians. Then, Devine chooses student directors who will play a pivotal role in the development of the play. Auditions and callbacks then take place a couple weeks later, followed with read-throughs and a couple months of memorization and edits. The final week of the production, named “tech week” is for lighting and sound technicians to make tweaks in the program.

As stressful as that sounds, “…you become a better person through analyzing how people act. You become tolerant of others, you learn the backstory of people you would not typically meet,” says Golden.

Golden also points out, “Theater is a place where you can constantly have something to do. To entertain others, and to put on big productions is a blast.”

Both students recommend seeing the show this weekend.

“For someone that doesn’t understand that much Shakespeare, it’s still hilarious. I started off not knowing anything about Shakespeare…the way they introduce his plays is through rap where I learn the meaning behind the plays,” LaBonte says.

According to students, the WSHS Theatre Company is a spontaneous and welcoming group of people who love the art of performing.

The Complete Works of Williams Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] will be performed Feb 1 and 2 at 7 PM in the Winter Springs High School Auditorium.