Nov. 4 marked the first night LBHS drama teacher Alexis Karol, along with a handful of talented actors, put on The Man Who Came to Dinner.  The comedy, which ran Nov. 4 through Nov. 13,  is a hilarious show filled with more than 30 characters.

     “The show was extremely well developed and the characters were hilarious, so there was never a dull moment on stage,” said senior Marissa Lee.

The students showed nothing but professionalism and ease during the show. They were able to stay in full character, which let them to portray their characters perfectly.

“I think that we put on a great performance that entertained and awed the audience,” said sophomore Will Purdy.

The students had to work diligently beforehand to keep in character during the real performance, which required practice every Monday-Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and every Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“The show is, to me, like a massive project. We work on it for hours each day, for months, and after tons of hard work, we were finally able to put on a great performance,” said Purdy.

Although on stage the show was all business, the cast always has a fun time behind the scenes.

“Wyatt Shipp’s character is Sheridan Whiteside. In one of the scenes one of the actors who has to say ‘Mr. Whiteside’ quite often kept saying ‘Mr. Whitehouse!’ We would all laugh about it, finally recover, and then he would say it again, and we would laugh harder. More recently, director Celena DelPizzo-Howell  told us a story about a man she met who had played Whiteside when he was in high school, but when he was talking about it, he kept saying ‘Whitesides.’  So now we’ll jokingly call him ‘Whitehouse … Whitesides …Whiteside!’ like a parent who says the names of all the other members of the family before arriving at the right name,” said Karol.

After performances were over, the drama students congratulated one another for multiple great shows and were sad to leave their drama family behind.

“My favorite part about the shows is the cast; everyone is so kind and amazing to each other that it’s like having a second family,” said Purdy.

All the shows went very smoothly, and Karol is very proud of all her drama students. Karol is also very impressed with the new talent that came in from the middle school.

“The freshmen, including Drew Fink, Malin Glade, Catherine Keyser and Luka Salib are handing their roles beautifully. I know freshman year is a big adjustment, and I am proud of them for balancing their many responsibilities in order to participate.  I hope more freshmen will come out for the other productions this year and join the drama family!” said Karol.

After countless rehearsals, nervous feelings and long nights, the show’s final product was better than anyone could’ve expected.

Drama students are looking forward to the Spring musical production of Cinderella. Auditions will be in December and everyone, not just drama students, is welcome to try out.