By Jon Adkins '18
The curtains have closed on VASJ’s production of Way Out West in a Dress. A total of 174 of VASJ’s own students came to see their fellow peers perform. After three months of dedicated practice, the actors sang and danced their hearts out for the audience.
Thought VASJ senior Louis Vertosnik IV has been involved with the drama club’s tech crew for four years, this was his first time acting on stage. Instead of working behind the scenes, he had a big role as one of the lead characters instead.
“It was a very different experience,” Louis says. “It wasn’t difficult to learn lines, songs, and dance cues.”
The falsetto voice of young actor Clarence Rawlins, played by senior Cori Carr, wasn’t the only ’false’ thing about him after he got himself and his acting troupe into a little fiasco in Lucky Lady, Nevada. Discovering that he has misread his distant aunt’s handwritten will, Clarence learned he had NOT inherited a profitable saloon, as expected, but instead the Lucky Lady Salon, a beauty parlor.
Flat broke, Clarence had no choice but to search through his costume trunk and transform himself into a British aristocrat, Lady Claire Rawl, the new head hair stylist of the small town’s only
Together with the ladies in the troupe: Heidi Gray, played by Grace Carlson; Bobbie Pinz, played by Ashley Wilson; and Nell Clipper played by Erin Maher, they re-opened the beauty salon to be a great success. But their good luck ran out when, without knowledge to them, the owner of the saloon next door plotted to acquire Clarence’s salon as part of a scheme to rob the bank next door to it.
Filled with hilarious characters, uproarious musical numbers, and puns galore, this western comedy included piano player Melody Plunkett played by Mary Dirk, preacher’s wife Sadie Blessing played by Alexis Collins; ranch owner Rhoda Steed played by Taraneh French and her cook Russell Grubb played by Joshua Cleveland.
Members of the audience ’dyed’ laughing at this wild western musical full of dynamic dialogue, double identities, criminal plots, and a music score as wild as the Old West!
For the large group of Drama Club members who are seniors, it was their final curtain call on VASJ's stage and a wonderful performance to hang their cowboy hats on.
Jon Adkins is a sophomore at VASJ. He is an honors student with one AP class. Jon is a member of drama club, av club, robotics, and actively participates as team captain in VASJ’s