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MIDDLE SCHOOL SPORTS — TO CUT, OR NOT TO CUT? • 8A
B & B COLLISION
JANUARY 25, 2024 • Vol. 4, No. 2
Novi High Students to perform competitive one-act student wins play with additional scenes they wrote congressional T app contest
A Novi High School junior was named the winner of the Congressional App Challenge for Michigan’s 6th District by U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell earlier this month. Each district in the U.S. House of Representatives holds a contest annually to encourage students to code and pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Students Sid are asked to come up with an app that can help the community in some way. Ishaan Sid created an app that is meant to help teenage drivers be safer on the roads. The app, called Safe Drive, tracks the driver’s speed as well as the speed limit on the road and audibly alerts the driver when going too fast. The app also will alert the teen’s parents via text that their child is speeding so that they can speak with their child about it. “It’s for teen drivers like me,” Sid said. “When I first started driving, I had trouble focusing on the
cmeier@candgnews.com
he Novi High School theater group will be showcasing its one-act play, “Every U.S. Election Ever,” a comedy about all the presidential elections in U.S. history, by playwright Ian McWethy, with public performances at the school at 7 p.m. Feb. 6-7, complete with updates written by the students to make the show current. “This show very specifically is written in a way that the writer is very open about, ‘Hey, yes, this is my work, but please feel free to do whatever you want, because this is a totally subjective matter, and I’d love it if you can add on.’ So, actually multiple students in the cast and crew ended up writing material to be performed in the show about some of the more recent elections, because that is how the show design kind of works and how it’s open-ended,” said Milan Thurman, a senior. “I think it’s pretty awesome that we can have that perspective on it. … It was a real fun process to be a part of.” Thurman, along with senior Arushi Singh, junior Neel ArchisManish and a directing team, helped to write scenes from the 2016 and 2020 elections along with updates on the pending 2024 election. According to Thurman, the 2016 scene is a spoof where reporters from around the world anticipate that Hilary Clinton is going to win and then suddenly Donald Trump ends up winning, and for the 2020 scene they cover Jan. 6 and the claims of election fraud. “Then 2024, obviously, hasn’t happened yet, so we wanted to cover it with, like, an open-ended, the future is unknown kind of thing, but we talked about the (partisanship) of how we are today. We talked about Republican and Democrat partisans and how they kind of take things to the polarized extremes,” said Thurman. “It’s not really about the politics. I mean we talk about the politics, but it’s not really about one side or the other. It’s just kind of taking the mick out of all of it and making it funny,” said Isabelle Shi (senior), who has several acting roles in the play. “Which makes it really fun to act out, because it’s ridiculous. … It’s blown up and it’s ridiculous and it makes this play just really fun.”
BELOW: Students Milan Thurman and Arushi Singh rehearse a swordfighting scene. Photos provided by Novi Community School District
See APP on page 4A
See PLAY on page 7A
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BY CHARITY MEIER cmeier@candgnews.com
BY CHARITY MEIER
RIGHT: Student director and costume designer Brandon Giliger and theater director Heather McCaig watch as students rehearse a scene in the one act play “Every U.S. Election Ever” at Novi High School Jan. 22.