By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
NORTH ENGLISH – On the evenings of March 14 and 15, the English Valleys Drama Department put on the play “Deadline” by Don Zolidis. The play stars an ensemble cast of struggling murder mystery writers who are invited to an island mansion for a writing competition. Things turn deadly serious when their host offers $1,000,000 to them if they can successfully carry out and get away with a murder. Bodies soon begin dropping. The English Valleys performance starred Ellie Patterson as Penelope, a social media influencer; Kaylee Frazier and Cyrus Morrison as Deborah and Greg Haskins, a bickering pair of married writers; Daige Sabin as Carswell Chalmers, an elderly, grumpy old writer; Kaylynne Hoylman as Vampetta, a goth writer obsessed with vampires and demons; Phoenix Sorden as Brenda, an enigmatic writer; Jack Osborn as Zak, a dimwitted party bro; and Stacia Linder as Jennifer, a Southern self-published mystery writer.
Rounding out the cast were Tyler Wiseman as Dellacroix, their mysterious host; Clara Karr as Bella, an ill-tempered barista; Olivia Debevec and Mckenna Rugg as Morris and Norris, a pair servants; and Clare Hart as Meyers, the boat captain and secret mastermind. Adam Forbes, Emily Sieren, Peyten Conrad, Chyar Mcgaffee, Miley Clubb, Ambryn Hoylman and Pantera Spies played minor roles in the play’s opening scene. Channing Stratton, Victoria Threlkeld and Aliza Walker worked as student directors. Korbyn Brecht was the crew lead, with Declan Patterson handling sound, Forrest Schott and Aadin Clingan handling lights, Whittney Walker handling the curtain, and Jack Johnson, Brodie Beabrower, Vinny Westphal, Chance Mcgaffee, Channing Stratton, Brody Williams, Miles Krebs and Landon Van Dee handling various crew duties.. The play was directed by Carrie Burdick, who has been directing plays at English Valleys for 15 years. Practices for the play began right after Christmas Break.
“It was time for another murder mystery dark comedy type,” said Burdick. “We like to do them. We like to rotate different types of plays and give the kids different types of experiences. These are good ones to do because they can work on both theatrical acting, you know, dramatic acting and comedy.”
“I’ve been doing the play for about two years now. I was kind of a late bloomer, but I’ve always had fun with it. I’ve done two plays and a musical…I enjoy a good comedic role. I feel like that’s my specialty,” said Cyrus Morrison, who played dimwitted husband Gregory.
Ellie Patterson and Kaylynne Hoylman, both Sophomores, stated they had been doing plays since Freshman year. “My director just thought I’d be good at this part, so I tried it out,” said Patterson.
“Yeah, same for me,” added Hoylman. “I think she just thought it matched our personalities and attitudes”
“Yeah it was really based on personalities…What I liked about this play was, you know, it was kind of a different thing from the past. We’ve done, I don’t quite remember the plays, but it wasn’t like a good murder mystery. I love all types of mysteries, so it was really fun to actually get to do a mystery,” said Morrison.
“I just really like my character and my costume,” said Hoylman.
“I really liked all the jokes that were made. I thought there was a lot of comedy in there. It’s funny for us to say, said Patterson.
“A lot of these kids do track or other sports,” said Burdick. “They will get here for morning practices at like 6:00 a.m. and they will be here til 8:30, or this last week, 9:00 at night. It is a lot of work.”
