On the evening of Thursday, April 26, Cerritos High School’s cast of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” performed for the production’s opening night. The Brewer Theatre was packed with students and faculty alike, as many were eager to watch the long awaited play. This year, due to the tight school budget, the theatre department could not put on a fall play for the students and faculty of CHS. Due to this, the spring play was more anticipated.
The play was based on the comic strip, “Peanuts,” by Charles M. Schultz, and was directed by Sue Rausch, who is the head of the theatre department as well as the advisor for the school’s Associated Student Body (ASB). “It’s nice to see the students grow through the many rehearsals that we go through to perfect the show,” said Rausch. “It was a great pleasure working with such capable students.”
The story followed Charlie Brown and his gang of friends as they went through their childish dilemmas in their everyday lives. “The play is full of fun and laughs as the story is told in the eyes of children,” Rausch explained. The whole story was fun-filled and provided a lot of laughs as the audience could not suppress their laughter at the comedic scenes, especially those involving Snoopy, Charlie Brown’s pet dog. The musical numbers were very cute and the dance routines fit in perfectly. “The cast members were so cute because they were trying to portray roles as children. I especially thought that Snoopy’s character was played out well. I could not stop laughing,” said Hanna Choi, as she praised the performance.
The staff went through many months of nonstop rehearsals and practices in order to perfect the stage for the audience on opening night. They bonded quickly as a cast and grew to become a family. “The whole play took two months of preparations, and in those two months, we’ve really grown more confident, more animated, and more familiar with each other; so much that they’ve become like a mini-family for me,” said Aeia Abas, a member of the ensemble. Another cast member, Ify Anene, who played the role of Lucy, stated, “There are two things that make being in a play great: the friends that work alongside you to make the production great and the adrenaline you get while on stage. I love being a part of plays for those two reasons alone; it’ll definitely be a part of my favorite memories from high school.”
The opening night was very successful and the play’s popularity failed to die down as each performance the cast put on was met with the same cheering accompanied by the same amount of energy and enthusiasm from the audience. The cast put on a total of 5 shows, each just as good as the one before it. “It’s a fun experience and hard work but in the end, hearing the cheers and ‘awws’ make you enjoy what you worked so hard for and reminds you of why you did it in the first place,” says Anthony Costa, who played the role of Snoopy.
I enjoyed reading a review on a classic play. You did a great job of providing feedback not only about the plot of the play but also the reactions of the audience throughout the play. On the other hand, the review seems to praise the play without any criticism or analysis of what could be improve for future productions. Including this will greatly help your article appeal to more readers.