A&E: Student Theatre Guild Performs Rumours

by Georgia King ’19

published in the April 2019 edition

The comedical play, Rumors, written by Neil Simon, was shown on the USN stage starting on April 4. The show was a great success and was put on by the Student Theatre Guild. The student-produced show was a hit with audience members, bursting into laughter countless times.

Student Theatre Guild president, Avery Sweet ‘19, made her debut as a director for this show. She comes from an acting background, so directing a show was a new role for her. 

“Directing was something I definitely had to adjust to, since I had never done a full show before. Getting to cast the show and run auditions was cool because I got to see what it was like it was like on the other side of theatre,” said Sweet. 

Avery Sweet was in charge of choosing which play would be student produced this year. She took guidance from past years and ended up choosing a show that was something unlike any show USN has done in the past as it was a one scene show focused on a comedical dinner party. It ends up being so humorous after many mishaps take place that make the anniversary dinner nearly impossible to go on. 

“I ended up picking this show after Denee [Stewart Freeman ‘18], the [STG] president last year, was thinking about directing it. This was the only play I had ever read that truly made me laugh out loud when I was reading it and I knew I wanted to direct it,” she said.
Rumors was very lighthearted and funny and Avery mentions this as one of her proudest moments as the director of the show. 

“It was so cool having audiences see the show and people really loved it! Hearing them laugh at all the jokes was really great for the cast and myself and I really am proud of how it all came together,” she said.

Haley Covington ‘19, an actor in the show, also mentions how important was the humor was to the show and what it was like to perform it. 

“We had to work a lot on our comedic timing. Avery helped us a lot with this but as we learned our lines more and more it became easier to land the jokes when we became more familiar with our characters,” said Covington. 

Covington also mentions some of the hardships of the show and some of the difficulties with only having ten people on stage at once.

“It was a one scene play really, we all had a lot of lines to learn, and very fast paced, so we had to get it right. They really needed to be perfect since they were so essential to the story,” she said. 

Overall, the show was a hit and the seniors that starred and directed this play are proud to leave the stage on this note.