Passing out homemade candies to attendees, theatre students usher in guests. Brightly animated portraits of Dreyfoos staff brighten the curtains. 

After over three months of preparation, the theatre department presented its fall production of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1, showcasing their acting, set-making, and production in Meyer Hall.

Theatre sophomore TJ Jean Baptiste took on the role of Lily Potter, one of Harry Potter’s three children.

“I think my favorite part is seeing it all unravel (…) the whole thing was so imaginary,” Jean Baptiste said. “Since it was kind of hard to picture everything, seeing it happen on stage was really refreshing.”

There were two theatre class periods performing and over 80 people working together for the entire production, which became a “challenge” as theatre senior Colton McMackin described. Many in-school and after-school rehearsals, mock performances, and practices were required. 

“The most difficult part when it came to preparing for the play was when we had a lot of costume changes and a lot of props to keep track of,” McMackin said. “We have a lot of people working on that, so it’s like a whole community working together to make sure everyone is on time.” 

The director of the production, theatre teacher Savannah Whetsell, also described her experience of putting the show together as “an exciting task.”

“It’s definitely been a challenge and an exciting task,” Ms.Whetsell said. “Some of these kids, I’ve taught them for four years, and it’s been amazing to see their growth, see them grow into these characters.”

The sets were designed and built by students from the visual, digital, and theatre departments across all grade levels. Over the course of three months, students worked to build the wooden movable staircase, painted backgrounds, and props such as the dementor puppets. Dementors are fictional characters in the Harry Potter series, who feed on human happiness to create discomfort and despair in their peripheral area.

“Building the staircase was daunting at the beginning, but once it was done, it felt like nothing,” theatre freshman Yoni Levkovitz said. “We went piece by piece to distribute the work to everyone and get it done as efficiently as possible.”

Before the start of the show, projections of the school’s staff were shown as Hogwarts professors and staff. To bring this idea to life, the digital and visual departments filmed faculty members, then students created animations and added effects to make them look realistic. 

“The lights, sound, fog, and projections were definitely stressful, but it’s also really fun because it’s the time when the show gets real instead of theoretical,” Ms. Whetsell said. “Bouncing off everything you know, just to be a huge performance, I think it’s phenomenal. It’s fantastic.”

To see information about the theatre department or purchase tickets for their upcoming shows, visit the theatre department’s website https://www.dsoatheatre.com.