The COVID-19 Pandemic shut down in-person schooling for nearly 2 years at Ludlow High School.  However, even when the students came back to school, many after-school clubs and activities did not. One of these clubs, the Drama Club, vanished from the halls of LHS completely.

After 3 years the club is finally back in business.  Let’s look at the club’s past and what’s in store for the future.

Before 2020, the Ludlow Drama Club drew in participants and audiences alike.  The previous productions — including High School Musical, Annie, and Mamma Mia! — were successful and impressive displays of talent from the student body with ticket sales to back it up.

The club was a prime opportunity for students from all walks of life to come together, to act, sing, and dance, forming a tight-knit community open to all.

Those who wanted to avoid performing in front of a crowd found solace behind the curtain, designing sets and costumes, moving pieces around on stage, or working in the light and sound booth.  The club offered something for everyone.

However, the arts at Ludlow sustained an enormous loss after the Pandemic. The Band and Chorus were reduced to a handful of students, and the Drama Club was completely wiped off the map.  

Having witnessed the grandeur of past performances in person, seeing the ruins of these programs today was discouraging for myself and many other musically inclined students.

While the Drama Club always had its issues — whether lack of participation or bad press — nothing could prepare students for its disappearance.

The remnants of the club were the abandoned set pieces of past shows in the auditorium and a small closet labeled with torn water-damaged paper.  There seemed to be no possibility of another show any time soon.

Luckily, not all hope was lost.  A handful of dedicated students, united in their love of theater were determined to get the club back.

“I love theater,” Senior Caitlyn Day, club president, expressed,  “Freshman year there were talks of the club going around, nothing happened, and I was very disappointed.” 

 The lack of a drama club was a letdown for many.  However, instead of hopelessness, Day and fellow chorus member, Angela Falcetti ‘23, responded with action.  

“I decided over the summer I’d work to rebuild it,” Day admitted. “The Ludlow School district introduced me to theater, so I decided to pay it forward.”

Their most arduous task was finding an advisor.  With no current supervisor, the club could not access the essentials to get it up and running. Who would be willing to build a club from the ground up?  Their answer lied with Mrs. Adelei Bernard and Ms. Emily Conroy.

“I had so many other things going on that originally I said no.” Bernard admitted, “But after getting through the first year and having Ms. Conroy on board this year I was so grateful!”

With the club established, the time had come to pick a show.  It may seem like an easy task, but for a new Drama club with questionable participation, the options were extremely limited.  Either the cast size was too big, the songs too demanding, the musical too niche, or the set too difficult to build in a short period. 

 Eventually, the advisors landed on The Wizard of Oz, a classic and attainable musical.

With luck, the Drama Club drew in a variety of talented members to pull the show off.  When asked about how well the show went, Caitlyn Day had a few things to say.

“Honestly, Wizard of Oz surpassed my expectations.” She professed.  “Yes, there were a few hiccups, but for a show put together in just one month, I think we did spectacularly.” 

Day continued to share the many challenges the club faced during rehearsals, explaining: “You have to understand, it’s not just learn your lines and go up on stage.  It’s memorizing lines, blocking, music, and choreography, as well as building sets and finding costumes.  It’s a lot for any group to pull off, let alone in one month.”

While the workload was intense for a juvenile drama program, cast and crew members share beloved memories of rehearsals. Senior Jack Favata reminisces on them with nostalgic appreciation.

“Having late nights, eating pizza in the auditorium, all those little things as a cast made it so memorable and so much fun. We were all just laying on stage and dancing around.”

When asked what he would say to anyone considering joining, Favata urges “Definitely join, you should join.  I promise you you will have so much fun and that you wish you’d joined sooner. There are so many ways to get involved.”

Heading into the 2023-2024 season, the club knew it was time to get more ambitious with production, set design, and overall performance quality.  By shifting gears to a fully spoken-word play instead of a musical, the club hoped to draw in a broader audience, and hopefully more club members.  

Other members and I can attest that this decision worked. Jack Favata, who portrayed the role of Wadsworth, had a few other opinions when it came to the decision.  

“I think doing a play allowed us to focus on the quality of the acting and scene work, as opposed to a musical where we kind of had to sacrifice it.” Favata relents “However, I think that music and singing is a bit more engaging rather than hearing people speak for an hour and a half.” 

Clue took the club to the next level when it came to production.  The show had barely any breaks for any of the cast or crew members, keeping the energy at an all-time high for the entire hour-and-a-half run time.  

The Wizard of Oz proved that drama was still alive in the heart of Ludlow High, and Clue showed that the club was ready for bigger and better.

With two shows under its belt, the LHS Drama Club has proven that it is back and here to stay.  Even so, the club is not without its challenges. Presently, the officers and advisors of the club are gearing up for next year’s show and preparing for new obstacles.

Mrs. Bernard shared her hopes and fears for the 2024-2025 season, expressing “As for going forward I would really like more students to be involved. We will have quite a few seniors, so that will prove difficult in future years if we don’t promote our program.”

As a cast member and officer myself, I share the unease of my fellow castmates about the longevity of the program.  But there is hope for keeping drama club at LHS.   By extending the club to the younger classes in the middle school, and using social media to put the club out there, hopefully, the LHS Drama Club will only continue to grow.  

So we urge you to try something new and put yourself out there, onstage or behind the curtain. The program and the people in it are worth it.