By Lily Belcher
On Thursday and Friday, November 18 and 19, Durant High School’s theater company, Troop 5444, is performing the play adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time.
“[A Wrinkle in Time is] an incredibly beloved novel from so many people’s childhoods,” said Director and Durant acting teacher Stephen Arment. “I feel like a lot of people have this connection to it, which is intimidating because it’s such a well-loved story.”
A Wrinkle in Time will serve as a challenge to Arment’s seventh period acting class, who have had the opportunity to play themselves over the past two years, since their previous plays focused on the struggles of high schoolers. A Wrinkle in Time will challenge the cast and crew of 30 students to adopt the personality and traits of characters from the novel by Madeleine L’Engle.
“When Arment told us we were doing A Wrinkle in Time for one-acts this year, I was beyond excited,” said Lead Actress Isabelle Hoofnagle. “When I first read the book, I saw a lot of myself in that … I’m incredibly grateful I have the chance to play it on the stage.”
The play will also be performed at the One-Act Festival at the University of South Florida at the beginning of December, where acting troops from Hillsborough County showcase one-act plays that they have been perfecting since the start of the school year. The play also has to be able to be taken on the road, since all props and materials for the show have to fit within an 8 by 4 box and all of the materials brought must be used in the 40-minute time constraint.
Arment hosted auditions during the school day for his advanced acting class, giving them the class period to prepare and perform a scene from A Wrinkle in Time. The auditions, however, did not need to be traditional since Arment already knew the students and the work of which they were capable.
“There were certain people who I knew were going to play certain roles,” admitted Arment. “I knew that Isabelle Hoofnagle was born to play Meg and I knew that Sydni Burge would make a wonderful Mrs. Whatsit and Ashley Irovando [would play] Charles Wallace. Those were the three that I really kind of built the rest of the ensemble around.”
To purchase tickets to see the Durant Theatre Company perform A Wrinkle in Time, visit booktix.com.
