On Sunday, March 20, the cast and crew of Community Ensemble Theater’s (CET) Pippin took their final bows.
Filled with great memories, the production of Community High School’s (CHS) final musical of the year brought the cast and crew together for the last time– which also brought a lot of emotions as seniors and cast members alike took their parting cues of the 2022 school year.
“I'm really happy with the [final] product, that I did the show, and [that] everything turned out so wonderfully,” said Marisa Andoni-Savas, a sophomore at CHS, “I'm really proud of what we did and how we created it.”
This was Andoni-Savas’s first production with CET, as well as her first time holding a leading position in theater at CHS; taking on the role of the Leading Player, a featured character in Pippin. Her role required great amounts of work, including the needed memorization of large summaries of lines, several songs sung alone by her character, and an additional involvement inside the story itself that even Pippin, our main protagonist, didn’t have. So naturally, her time was constantly spent inside the school, or more specifically, Craft Theater, as she worked for endless hours with fellow directors and cast/crew members to pull together a show that would never be forgotten.
“The whole CET family welcomed me with open arms…” Andoni-Savas said. “I really would not have been able to put that show on and be the Leading Player without them.”
Hannah Rubenstein, a sophomore at CHS was the assistant stage manager and has been doing CET since she started high school, and enjoyed being back in Craft Theater working with everyone to create Pippin.
“I feel like I was able to really connect with the directors and the actors more, and really create a friendship,” Rubenstein said. “It was a lot of fun to be able to have friends on cast and crew because of my position.”
Rubenstein is sad to see Pippin end, but has her mind on the future of CET. She hopes to implement new ideas to help make the production even better when she is stage manager.
And with the last upcoming show of the year, Just Desserts, a short series of plays created within 24 hours, Andoni-Savas is just as excited to continue working with CET to create and embrace more fantastical stories led by the student body.
“I am definitely hoping to do Just Desserts, and [the] next shows that come up to volunteer.” Andoni-Savas said, “I'm really excited for what comes next and no matter what it is, I know it's gonna be a blast. Whatever we do, it's just gonna be really fun.”