The weekend of April 27th-29th was very special for Padua Academy. This was a weekend that will change the course of the years to come and open new opportunities for both Padua and Salesianum students. The drama class, which was just added to the Padua curriculum this year, would attempt to do the impossible:  30 plays in 60 minutes.

The Padua Players (Padua & Salesianum Drama Class) performed 30 Neo-Futurist plays in 60 minutes. The Padua Players (Padua & Salesianum Drama Class) performed 30 plays in 60 minutes. This play was written by a group known as “The Neo-Futurists.” The Neo-Futurists is a group of writers, actors, directors, and performers who not only own their own theatre in Chicago, Illinois, but also are nationally for their comedic and audience engaging plays.  The 30 plays that the drama class put on was adapted from the Neo-Futurist hit play “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.”

This idea was proposed by Sarah O’Connell after performing one of the monologues from the play for one of the assignments for the class.  The class then got together with Sarah and picked the 30 plays that they decided to perform.  When the students picked the plays, Ms. Davis read them very carefully to make sure that they were Padua appropriate.  For example, in one of the plays where the Neo-Futurists wrote about William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, there was a part when the characters of Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Hermia were calling each other names.  Ms. Davis had to rewrite this so that it rhymed, made sense, and was also appropriate for the Padua audience.

This play was perfect to perform for this year’s drama class because many people could play the characters as well as it would be a great opportunity to show the classes versatile acting skills. Within the 30 plays students selected, they incorporated comedy and drama. The Drama class worked really hard to make sure that they were prepared for their debut performance. Ms. Davis also worked tirelessly to make sure that the first ever drama performance at Padua Academy was everything that everyone including students and administration hoped that it would be.