Weekend Showcase: Cooper High School Presents ‘Lights! Camera! Action?’

Weekend Showcase: Cooper High School Presents ‘Lights! Camera! Action?’

At the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year at Cooper High School, it was clear that any theatrical production was going to look dramatically different. Not meeting in person, theater students got together under the direction of Gretchen Wurzer to produce an original play — all done virtually. Cooper High School theater students put together “Lights! Camera! Action?” set to go live on its website March 13.

The Storyline

The play features Cooper senior Sulia Lee, who plays Barbara, and junior Marcus Adams, who plays Charlie. A glimpse into Charlie’s life shows he is aspiring screen writer, unemployed, eating pop tarts for dinner and about to lose his girlfriend. But he’s getting some help from Barbara, his agent. The twist is Barbara is his …dead agent.

“She comes back to help Charlie write something amazing, something great,” said Lee.


“His whole family, his girlfriend, like all his friends …they want him to succeed, but they just don’t believe in his dream at all,” said Adams, who plays Charlie.

“Lights! Camera! Action?” Cooper High School virtual production

Virtual … But not Virtually Impossible

Lee, Adams and the other performers used green screens to help pull off the play. The green screens allowed for graphics and different effects. 


“We would film scenes at home against blank walls,” said Adams. “The editor would be able to do like different effects like green screen or be able to change the backgrounds. So like something appropriate for the scene.”



Lee and Adams got together for a few scenes, but apart from that, the rest of the cast shot their own parts solo.

Eleven students participated in the cast with three student directors.

“This is all really uncharted territory for every single one of us. The kids got really savvy. For the end with angles and doing takes and using the correct vocabulary, film vocabulary as opposed to theater vocabulary,” explained Gretchen Wurzer, Cooper’s theater director.
 


The curtain goes up and the link goes live on Saturday night, March 13. You can go to the Cooper High School website to find the link.

Cooper High School