The Upper School play, An Enemy of the People, was recently performed by the Upper School theater department. The play focuses on a scientist, Dr. Stockman, who discovers that his town has a water source that is poisoned. However, he ends up discovering something far more poisonous: his town’s political system. Stockman discovers that without political power, there is no way to share the truth, as politicians are able to mold the will of the public very easily into demonizing science. 

The cast put hours and hours into the play, and a lot happened behind the scenes to make sure everything ran smoothly. The best example of this was in Act III when Dr. Stockman and his family have two stones thrown through their window. The glass that was shattered onstage was sugar glass. It was made of the same material as rock candy, but poured into a cast and set. The sugar glass was then stuck onto a windowpane onstage, where a crew member threw a rock through it. No one was able to sit to the far left of the theater during the play because of the window shattering. If the audience were to be seated on the far left side of the theater, they would be able to see the crew member throw the rock and shatter the glass, which would shatter the illusion as well as the window. Besides taking a very long time to clean up the stage (sugar glass is incredibly sticky, I cannot emphasize this enough) the sugar glass tends to stick to the bottom of shoes. This made it more difficult to navigate onstage during Act III, as stepping on the glass would make a noise that would create a disturbance. Also, walking with the sound of sticky sugar glass stuck to the bottoms of your shoes wasn’t something you wanted to happen. 

The effort the cast and crew put into this performance was incredible. Hours and hours of work were spent memorizing lines, knowing where to be onstage, and knowing how to not endanger anyone. There were several moments during the production where people could have gotten hurt or something could have gone wrong, like when someone was picked up or when the rock was being thrown through the sugar glass. These scenes needed to be practiced over and over again. When we all ducked on stage, it wasn’t acting! The rock wouldn’t always land in the same place, and the shards of sugar glass would fly everywhere. Ducking was important not only to the plot, but also to avoid injury. 

Acting in the play was an incredible experience, and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who is thinking about trying theater.