The right to rule: students take the lead

BY CELESTE CARPINELLI Staff Reporter

This spring, the Sequoia Drama club is putting on a student run and original musical called The Right To Rule. The production is a passion project of the Drama club members and is completely student made from the choreography to the story and its songs. Sequoia’s Drama Club hasn’t always had such advanced student-run productions, and in fact The Right To Rule brings a lot of new stuff to the stage.

“This is like the first full musical in a long time I believe. I don’t know if there’s ever been a full musical done with drama club in the past few years. There have been smaller scaleplays, usually one act and also one [night] show productions so this is going to be the biggest one in a long time,” Tabitha Oliver, a junior and The Right To Rule co-director said.

The Right To Rule is the first Drama Club production to be a full musical in a long time and it came to be after Joshua Thacker, Senior, won the Drama Club’s hearts and votes on the original story he submitted.

The production now has a cast of 18 students, Drama teacher Talia. Cain is present at the after-school rehearsals, and a variety of students behind the scenes choreographing, directing, lighting, costuming and more.

Thacker has made all the music in the medieval show, as well as written the plot and script, featuring the Avondale king and his advisors’ quarrel over what to do when the fierce kingdom of Roltvia is bound to attack.

Sequoia has a few ways of becoming a part of these productions, the Drama elective’s large class productions, the tech crew, and the Drama Club with it’s student-run productions and rehearsals after school. Sequoia’s plays and musicals have always had a large focus on the students. Students are the actors, collaborators, and artists who unanimously bring the words on the script they are given into a live performance.

“I think that there’s people from tons of backgrounds who have different personalities and different ways of going about life. And I think that that’s like something that would be nice for new people or other people to explore because there’s a lot more than what meets the eye to the theater” Oliver said. The theater community is becoming more diverse with queer and BIPOC students, which makes the productions have more perspectives. “I would say that the stigma behind Drama and Theatre is something that needs to be changed because I think it really drives people away from a community that they could find where they’ll feel comfortable and welcomed and loved. And that’s something that everybody should be able to experience” Oliver said.

But if you want to join a Drama club production, and you’re not sure how you’ll fit into the cast, how possible is it to find a role that you’re interested in?

“I’ve done practically every sport there is [...] I enjoy art, I enjoy singing, I used to be in an orchestra. So I really enjoy doing tons of things. Drama helped me grow in leadership skills and [...] interact with skills in general, and helped me be able to kind of grow out of my shell and meet new people and do things that I thought I couldn’t do,” Oliver said.

Since drama productions have so many arts connected to them to make a full production, people whose interests may not fit into the typical Sequoia electives can find an opportunity to express themselves in Drama. Prop-building, lighting, choreographing, costuming and more are all behind the scenes aspects of Drama that make the production alive.

“Theater is basically my life and it’s going to be my life for a long time now. And just the community that Cain has helped build in the classes, club and the productions is amazing. If you can’t be in the classes, you can be in the club.You can’t be in the club? You can still help out in the productions,” Thacker said.

The theater community isn’t just who signed up for the Drama elective, it’s a collective of people who have found a connection with Drama and found a way to express their hobbies.