Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island is one of the most well-known pieces of literature treasured (pun intended) by readers for over a century.
Initially published in 1883, Treasure Island tells the story of a young boy named Jim, along with his family, who voyage to find the buried treasure from a map given to Jim by the pirate Capitan Bones. On their trip, their ship gets taken over by pirates who want the treasure map for themselves, even if it means making Jim and his friends walk the plank! The novel was then adapted into a play by Joseph George Caruso in 1979.
The play was chosen by “a democratic vote among Treasure Island, Dracula, and Little Women,” said Abbigail Shegonee, who plays the infamous Long John Silver.
However, many guild members expressed concern over Dracula’s mature themes. Therefore, as described by Madeline Condon, who plays Auntie Nan, “Treasure Island was selected because of its family-friendly nature, ability to genderswap roles, and the challenging set.”
When asked about the experience working on the play, seniors Shegonee and Condon share their thoughts:
Condon loves that the cast shares a strong bond and builds a sense of community.
“I have always loved the community of the Drama Guild,” she said. “I find the cast always becomes closer and are able to have a more-stress free time. We always enjoy performing together and messing around at practice. It is always a great time!”
Shegonee noted a few challenges within their experiences.
“It overall hasn’t been too bad,” they said. “It’s a lot of memorization and practice. The goal is to get to a point where you have the confidence to not mess up. It’s always relatively easy at the start, but it gets more intense the closer you get to [the] show.”
They also talked about the need for teamwork.
“There’s a lot of coordination between everyone in every rehearsal. It’s not just about having good on-stage chemistry and banter but also working with each other and improvising when things go wrong.”
The cast has risen to the challenge.
“Overall, we have pretty good cohesion this year throughout the cast and it’s really helpful to our final performance,” Shegonee said.
Any performance, whether a musical, play, or dance has ups and downs. The production of Treasure Island has been no exception.
“The greatest challenge for the cast has certainly been the lines and acting,” Condon said. “Treasure Island includes some larger-than-life characters as opposed to our past productions, where the characters were more realistic. It is certainly an acting challenge to play characters who say odd things by our modern standard and require more effort to portray their dramatic body language. For example, my character, Auntie Nan, is a whirlwind of emotions, going from running around like a headless chicken to calm and business-like at the drop of the hat. It was certainly a learning curve flipping back and forth between while maintaining stage directions, volume, and dialogue.”
Shegonee expresses the challenges that absence within the cast created.
“There were quite a few challenges in this production. The most notable of which was cast member absences for the final show,” Shegonee said. “It definitely threw a bit of a wrench into our plans. It made the cast worried about opening night, considering we found out three days before the show. That was a lot, but we came together as a cast and crew and made things work the best we could with the cards we were given, and I’m proud of us for doing that..”
Despite the challenges, the cast has enjoyed the experience of working on this production.
Condon especially loves the costumes that the cast gets to wear.
“I love costumes and watching them develop over the course of our practice period. It was so amazing to see bits and pieces in the costume closet become full ensembles that embody each character. Our costume designer did an amazing job, especially with the pirate costumes! They are so fun and colorful! Seeing the set come together and my fellow actors find their characters and mannerisms is such a fun process as well. I’m so glad I was able to be a part of Drama Guild!”
Shegonee appreciates the community part of being in a stage production
“The most fun part for sure is the production dinner after closing night. Everyone gets together and goes to Culver’s for one last group hangout. It’s really nice as a sendoff for seniors and everyone who might not be returning for next year’s play.”
They added, “The small side chats and intermission breaks are really nice. You’d be surprised by how silly people get behind the stage when they don’t have to come on [stage] for a while.”
The play will be performed on Friday, Dec. 13, Saturday, Dec. 14, at 7 pm, and Sunday, Dec. 15, at 2 pm.
Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults.
