Wednesday Sep. 17 is opening night for the 2025 Fall Play, Pride and Prejudice. The cast has been taking the final steps in their rehearsal process for the highly anticipated opening night in the Norman E. Watson Auditorium.
This year, because of the changes to South’s school calendar, the entire Fine Art’s schedule shifted, Mandi Corrao, English Teacher and Fall Play Director, said. Auditions for the fall play usually occur towards the beginning of the school year, but now occur in the spring of the previous school year, Corrao said. That time shift posed a challenge for her, having to communicate with middle schools about interested incoming freshmen, as well as the cast who needed to adjust quickly.
“It was a bit jarring at the end of last year because the audition process felt really fast,” Corrao said. “I’ve been impressed by the flexibility and the professionalism the [cast] has shown.”
Students began practicing for the play over the summer, with the expectation that they would have all lines memorized by the first day of rehearsals, junior William Hanneman said. As some benefitted from the extended time, others struggled with the unusually large gap between the auditions and rehearsals, Hanneman said.
“This is the only show I’ve ever done where I was expected to be memorized by day one,” Hanneman said. “It was harder for me because the way I like to memorize things is by doing them.”
Junior Brielle Doherty, Student Producer, believes that beginning the fall play process during the summer benefitted the quality of the show. The cast got to rehearse for one week before school began, allowing them more time in rehearsal to better understand their characters and the story, Doherty said.
“[Starting] in the summer allowed people to really focus on their own,” Doherty said. “When we came together it [became] more [refined] rather than adding new material.”
Senior Bekah Vogt wanted to participate in Pride and Prejudice because of the positive experiences she had from being in past shows. The fall play environment is one of the most unique to both Corrao and the cast due to the tight-knit community established each year.
“[The play] is right at the beginning of the year, [so] everybody is fresh [and] excited to start the school year,” Corrao said. “It is a smaller cast than the other projects [at South], so it makes it a more personalized experience.”
Pride and Prejudice is a classic novel by Jane Austen, Corrao said. She added a contemporary twist for their production, modernizing the story by pushing more themes of feminism and female empowerment. The cast has been enjoying the humor and themes scattered throughout the script that shocked them, Doherty said.
“[The cast] is excited to see reactions to the show because the script is really funny, which a lot of people aren’t going to be expecting,” Doherty said. “It is the perfect mix of funny and captivating, but [also] romantic and classic.”
Doherty finds the show as very unique due to the complexity of the characters. Every single character has a significance and deeper meaning that the audience can seek out, Hanneman said. As for playing the roles, the cast had to put more effort into understanding and relating to their characters, Vogt said.
The audience is going to love the humor and modernized script that brings much more entertainment to a classic story, Corrao said.
Vogt is particularly excited to take the stage as this is her last fall play after participating all four years in high school.
“This is my fourth and final fall play, and each year I keep coming back because it is such a fun experience to start the year with,” Vogt said.
