Cedar theater presents “Dearly Departed”
On Tuesday, Oct. 24 and Friday, Oct. 27 the drama program at Cedar Shoals performed their first play of the year “Dearly Departed.”
The story of a chaotic family dealing with the death of Bud, the patriarch, “Dearly Departed” may seem sad or dark, but surprisingly, it is a comedy. The play opens with Bud and his wife, Raynelle, sitting at their table as Raynelle reads the mail. Just as she finishes reading a letter, Bud drops dead.
The Cedar Shoals drama group performed the play in a regional competition run by the Georgia High School Association. At the end of the competition, three judges decided which schools would move on to the state level and would select specific actors to recognize. While Cedar did not advance to state, two actors from “Dearly Departed” were recognized: seniors Tahtiana Talley and Alys Andrews.
Even though they did not move on to state, the competition was helpful because of notes given to them about what they could improve.
“One of the things that’s really good about competition is there’s three judges taking copious notes and evaluating you on a score sheet. The first thing we did on the bus coming home was read the notes aloud,” drama teacher Rosemary Milsap said. “Those notes are really informative because I am one teacher telling them things and sometimes that doesn’t sound like it’s that important. But when you have three judges who reinforce their comments, all of a sudden it sounds very important.”
Milsap’s drama classes have performed “Dearly Departed” four times since Milsap started working at Cedar. She didn’t originally plan to perform the play again but decided to add it to a selection of five plays for students to choose from and they decided on “Dearly Departed.”
“I’ve always loved it. It is such a fun play to work on and a fun way to spend your time,” Milsap said. “I think they (the students) just felt ready for a comedy. They had been telling me they just wanted to do a really fun comedy.”
Milsap expressed that she wishes more students would attend drama performances at Cedar.
“Overwhelmingly, students always tell me ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so glad I saw that production. I loved that production,’” Milsap said. “People who come see Cedar theater productions love it and we want to perform for Cedar students.”
