“Everything you can imagine is real,” said Pablo Picasso, and nowhere is that more true than in a rehearsal.
Montgomery County Public Schools’ mission in providing a high quality fine arts education is to enhance curiosity and creativity in their students. Theater, one of the components in the fine arts program, provides a safe environment for students to expand their skills socially and intellectually by using theatrical expression to explore the different views of society.
Since the arrival of Mrs. Patricia Groisser as the director of the theater program five years ago, Herbert Hoover Middle School has produced broadway plays which have been sold out every year. When asked what makes Hoover theater so special, Mrs. Groisser said, “First the Hoover students who are amazing and how involved the Hoover community is.”
March 6, 2020 is the opening night of Herbert Hoover Theatre’s Guys and Dolls Jr. What will be seen onstage is the result of months of hard work. The entire cast and crew- consisting of roughly 100 children from 6th to 8th grade, have been hard at work since November 2019.
Starting with auditions in November, for which everyone had to sing a song and perform the prepared monologue of their choice, the cast has been singing and dancing to show tunes nearly every day, which can be difficult and tiring. “The first few weeks when we are learning the music and the lines, before we start blocking, is really hard,” says Naomi Wollman, a 6th grader playing Doris, a Hot Box Girl. “But it all comes together in the end.”
However tiring it may be, something about this experience makes people want to return to the theatre company again and again. This is Sneha David’s (playing a Hot Box Girl named Barbara) third time back, and she wishes it were not the last. “The close friendships that this [theatre] produces are incredible, and the improvements are amazing to watch,” she says.
Sometimes middle schoolers aren’t the easiest to deal with, due to the “large maturity level differences in cast members,” says Patricia Groisser, the director of the theatre program at Hoover. However, she also states that no matter how hard it is to “get what is in [her] imagination… into [her] students heads… when it all comes together, it is magical!”
“[Although] the late nights are tiring, which sometimes makes [us] want to give up,” says Sneha David, the final product is great and worth it in the end. During tech week, the last week before opening night, the students and parent volunteers are at the school, hard at work until around 9 pm. The lighting and sound crews perfect all their cues, and the cast practices quick costume changes. During this whole week- and anyone who does theater can back this up- anyone involved in this experience runs on purely adrenaline and big meals, all while struggling to keep up with their school and homework.
People return to this community for the strong friendships they want to create, not only to enjoy themselves while acting.
Herbert Hoover middle school is filled with a variety of creative, talented, and intelligent students. They succeed in what they love and enjoy free school activities and participation in the schools’ teams, or clubs. Students who are passionate about singing and acting are ready to take on the spotlight with Guys and Dolls Jr.
Article and Image by Nina Lingan, Isabella Grabo, and Shaunak Dua of Herbert Hoover Middle School