Schools
SVHS Students Take the Stage for 'The Curious Savage'
The play opens this Thursday and will be a heart-warming sensation you won't want to miss.
What would you do if you were left $10 million? Scotts Valley High School thespians will confront the question in their latest production of John Patrick’s The Curious Savage.
The play, written in 1950, tells the story of an elderly woman, Mrs. Savage, who was left $10 million by her late husband. Mrs. Savage, played by senior Kendra Kannegaard, is placed in “The Cloisters” sanatorium by her three greedy stepchildren who want the money for themselves.
“It’s a colorful cast of characters that she meets when she gets there,” said drama teacher and director Naomi Rollins. “You end up falling in love with the characters even though they’re all kind of strange and have these eccentricities about them.”
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Not only does the play confront the ideas of greed and kindness, it also contemplates the fine line between sanity and insanity.
“How do you prove someone’s insane or not?” Rollins asked. “You start to realize what your definition of crazy and of normal is. [Mrs. Savage] isn’t crazy but you don’t really know that until the end.”
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The other characters in The Cloisters suffer from various mental illnesses, like a World War I soldier who has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and believes he has a scar on his face even though he doesn’t, or the woman who carries a doll around and believes it is her son.
“They all find solace in each other I guess. It’s very sweet. The students have really taken to their characters,” Rollins said.
The student-made costumes and set will also be a sight to see, as the Student Union has been transformed into an elegant living room with a crystal chandelier. Senior Scott Boynton designed the entire set, which was also made wheelchair accessible for the star of the show, Kannegaard.
The Curious Savage is Rollin’s first play that she has directed entirely on her own, after helping Karin Babbit with the past five shows as a student teacher.
“It’s definitely been a learning experience,” Rollins said.
The Curious Savage runs Dec. 1, 2 and 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 8, 9, and 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the SVHS Student Union, 555 Glenwood Dr. Tickets are $8 for students and $10 for non-students. You can buy them at the door or at www.showtix4u.com.
