Just weeks after their second production of the year, The Play That Goes Wrong, Players began to prepare for their next show, The Outsiders. The show was adopted from the 1967 classic novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, and was even-tually interpreted into play format by Christopher Sergel. Stage Manager AJ Higgins ’26 provided a brief description of the club’s rendition of the story, stating that, “It takes place from the perspective of Ponyboy who is labeled as a Greaser and looked down upon by most of society. The rest of the Greasers are often in conflict with the Socs, who are much more favored by society but are the antagonists in reality.” As Stage Manager of the production, Higgins describes his role as, “a lot of emails and so much communication, but…such a fun and wonderful job.” He is mostly responsible for the coordination and management for all subdivisions of The Outsiders, which may include sound, set, lighting, costumes, and acting. Hinton, the book’s author, was only 18 when her book was published, writing the majority of it during her junior year of high school—the same age as many of Players’ cast and crew. The theater troupe is excited to draw from every possible well of inspiration as they reimagine this iconic tale.
This play, communicating themes of friendship, violence, and social class, was selected by Players’ very own Reading Committee. Players’ secretary Del Reid ’25 describes that the committee picks each season’s show and and consists of “ten to twelve people who read around four to five shows…The decision itself is focused on the unanimous consensus theory, which means every member must feel comfortable with the final decision.” Although Reid is the group’s chair, their job is more to facilitate the committee rather than make all of the decisions.Within the committee, the “right show” is selected based on numerous factors: performance difficulty, length, and size of cast. The Outsiders was chosen earlier in the school year based on predictions of audition numbers, set design, and its run time of about two hours.
Common with any developing show, there is an unfathomable amount of effort that goes into every step. Although still in its infancy, the stage manager, set designers, and Players’ board have already begun to outline their ideas on how to bring The Outsiders to life. Stage crew is no exception, as the set that theactors perform on must build a world that engages the audience. Set designers work in multiple stages, creating concept designs, as well as “creating a paper floor plan and moving around cutouts of the set pieces on it to figure out where to place them on the stage.” Their plans include both a soft yellow color scheme to represent “a worn down, but safe home and space for Pony and all of his friends” along with a 1960s neon look for a diner scene. Head Set Designer Callie Borden ’25 and Assistant Set Designer Miriya Vargas ’27 go on to describe the incorporation of Players crew into their ideas, including lighting design, carpentry and directors. Along with their original ideas, the stage crew will be pulling inspiration from Players’ fall musical Little Shop of Horrors. This includes the costumes from Little Shop which are influencing how characters will dress in The Outsiders.
Auditions, held February 28, featured lines from the main characters of the show: Ponyboy Michael Curtis, Sherri ‘Cherry’ Valance, Dallas ‘Dally’ Winston, Johnny Cade, and Randy Anderson. During callbacks, however, actors had the opportunity to display their acting range within a variety of different roles. With such a diligent group of students, Players’ production of The Outsiders will be, without a doubt, an amazing addition to LM’s artistic repertoire.
