By Sanner Bennett
The weekend of Apr 19, TPA students put on the annual spring play which this year was the original stage play of “Sherlock Holmes.” This play was written by the author of the original Sherlock Holmes books, Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as William Gillete, a well-known playwright and actor.
The play was directed, as always, by our very own drama teacher, Mr. Sanderson and performed by students from all different grade levels. This year in particular there were a lot more middle schoolers than there had been in past years, some playing major roles. The amount of male participants also increased this year.
The story centered around a married couple, James and Marge Larrabee, played by Orion Doran and Mariah Gunnison, who were holding a young girl, played by Ayla Malbrough, hostage because she possessed evidence for sensitive information about the Prince of Bohemia, whom the Larrabees’ planed to use as blackmail. Unfortunately for the Larrabee’s the British government hired none less than Sherlock Holms, played by Fern White, to obtain the information. The Larribees then go to the notorious Professor Moriarty, played by Aiden Pinch, for help.
The play is set when Professor Moriarty and Sherlock already had been at each other’s throats for a long time. and they both use the situation to try to end the other’s reign. In the end Sherlock outsmarts Moriarty’s attempt to trap him and traps Moriarty himself. Then he and Watson, played by Grace Kolinchak, go off on a vacation to start their next adventure.
The set pieces were more elaborate than TPA has seen in a while. They were moving sets on wheels, which the cast would move during scene changes. This allowed the audience to be more immersed and made it easier to follow along since it was clear when the cast was in a different scene and place.
During intermission, scene changes, and at the opening of the show, the audience was serenaded by 6th grader Brooke Sahl on the piano.
The costuming was also very interesting since the clothes of the time the play is set are very different from the clothes of our time period. Characters also went through multiple outfit changes displaying a variety of styles for the era. The best part of the costumes, however, was when it was time for Sherlock to put on a disguise and fool the criminals, while wearing a busy ginger beard.
The whole production was very elaborate and Sherlock’s long quickly spoken speeches were especially impressive. The cast also completed most of the play with British accents, which was very impressive.