It is not often that you hear of “Pinocchio,” “The Muffin Man,” “The Big Bad Wolf,” and other fairytale creatures in the same story. Ms. Gehrke’s theatre classes performed a production filled with classical storybook characters in a modern-day mystery on Jan. 7 during third hour in the auditorium. 

For many students who were involved in the production “Law & Order: Fairy Tale Unit,” it was their first time ever performing in front of an audience. 

“I always had somewhat of an interest in acting but this was the first time I made a performance out of it,” junior Vincent Jarus said. Jarus was one of several students who had no prior acting experience “Other than that, the only thing I had close to an acting career would be some skits on YouTube.”

In order to prepare for the play, the class was told in advance that they would be working on a play. Everybody got a certain amount of roles and the actors would constantly read over their script over and over again. They would practice on stage and take baby steps adding small elements over time until the class was developed enough to use costumes, props and lighting.

“You have to do a lot of memorization and some roles have more lines than others obviously,” sophomore Taylor Koehnemann said, who played the role of the Big Bad Wolf. “You have to react to what is going on physically, emotionally, and verbally as well.”  

Even though most students in the production were new to acting, there were still a few more experienced actors who took charge of helping and leading the crew to success.

“I am so incredibly proud of our class, we worked so hard to put together a fun show and we made it happen,” said senior Sean Bruce. 

Overall, the students enjoyed working together, making friends, being in a hardworking environment, and doing their best to perform a great show.

“I really like the play, for example, this girl messed up like she dropped this thing and she just kept on acting. I thought that was really really awesome,” said sophomore Mikaylah Larkin, who performed several roles during her first school production. 

Directed by: Anna Wright

Costumes: Payton Busselman

Jabari Thompson: Intense Voiceover/Happy/Blind Mouse

Nate Eckardt: Chuh-Chnk/Grumpy/Blind Mouse 3/ Bailiff

Connor Smith: Location/Bashful/Robin Hood

Sean Bruce: Detective H.D

Aiche Beye: Detective Cindy

Anna Wright: Zelle/Dopey/ Muffin Man

Taylor Koehnemann: Jack/ B.B Wolf/Peter Peter

Payton Busselman: Jillian/ Executive A.D.A Stiltskin/Cat

Logan Jorden: Hansel/A.D.A Merm/ Fiddle

Vincent Jarus: Gretel/ Pig 1/ Cow

Kennedy LeMaster: Ugly D/ Pig 2/ Little Dog 

Helen Erne: Officer Gold/ Pig 3/ Dish

Mikaylah Larkin: Pinocchio/Peep/Spork

Arely Perez-Gomez: Capt Hook/ Queenan/ Judge F. Godmother

Rylee Shipes: Doc/ Blind Mouse 1/ Court Reporter Sprat 

Law and Order: Fairy Tale Unit 

By: Jonathan Rand