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Mustang Theatre actors prepare for ‘Roshambo’

Mustang Theatre student actors have been rehearsing to perform “Roshambo,” running Nov. 29-Dec. 2. (courtesy photo)

Mustang Theatre actors prepare for ‘Roshambo’

By Kaila Mellos

Marshall Middle School’s Mustang Theatre is practicing for its new production running at the end of this month. Mustang Theatre will perform “Roshambo” Nov. 29 through Dec. 2.

The play revolves around a very sarcastic game of rock, paper, scissors that follows a couple of players trying to win a tournament with some complications.

“It’s very sarcastic in the sense of how excited people get about the World Series or the Super Bowl,” said Scott Sussman, new theatre director and teacher at Marshall Middle School. “But these are kids who are championship Roshambo players.”

Leading roles are being played by students Alessandra Fritz and Sanika Gangal, who will portray Taylor, the top-ranked Roshambo player. Another character, played by students Madison Smidt and Noelle Cooper, will take on the role of Becca, Taylor’s best friend and teammate.

With the play only a few days away, the students have been practicing and preparing for their roles. One of the things Sussman has been working on with the students during this production is their projection and voices. That is one thing that he is excited to see the performers grow through their practices.

“Getting them to project their voices has been our main focus for this production,” he said. “Some of them don’t have much of a problem. But others just have quiet voices. I’ve been telling them this is the most important aspect of putting on a play or of acting in a play, because if the audience can’t hear your lines, there’s no show.”

But Sussman is excited about finally seeing the final product of all the hard labor the theatre kids have put into this show.

“These kids are amazing, and getting to work with them is great. They just love getting up on stage and having fun and being goofy,” Sussman said. “They know that their parents are gonna be there and their friends are gonna see it. They like to not just put on a play, not just the acting aspect of it, but they really enjoy the show and the showmanship as a culmination of their work. We’re taking it scene by scene and line by line, and it culminates in a show with sound effects and costumes and then an audience. The kids love it.”

Once this production wraps and the students return from winter break, they will be putting on their rendition of “Seussical Jr.”

Sussman is enthusiastic about being Marshall Middle School’s new theatre director and comes from an English background as a children’s book author.

He has been impressed so far with the talented student actors through the theatre program and cannot wait to keep putting on productions.

“They’re really, really incredible kids,” Sussman said. “They are really genuinely very mature and talented, and I feel blessed and honored to be working here.”