The drama department recently performed “Clue” outside at Riverbend. Many students and parents came out to watch the production while following COVID guidelines. 

In order to follow the governor’s COVID guidelines, setting up for the production was time consuming, but the theater department was willing to spend the extra time. “We had the play outside, which meant, every night, we spent up to 3 hours moving the set inside so it didn’t get ruined, then another 3 to 4 hours in the afternoon rebuilding and reconsolidating all of the parts,” said Riverbend senior, Abigail Marshall. 

Due to COVID, the entire production was completed in less than two months. This is astonishing since previous plays were completed in double that time. “Not only did we have less time, but we also had 25% of the manpower we’ve had, as the majority of our class was online. Instead of 25-30 people working 2-3 times a week, we had 6-7 people coming in once a week if we were lucky,” said Marshall. “It was a lot of hard work for what was supposed to be 4 nights of acting.”

COVID restrictions caused the performance to be anything but normal, but this did not stop the hard-working students involved. “Usually, we have someone backstage who puts mics on us, but they weren’t allowed to assist in any part of it, and all of the quick changes were done by ourselves, which made it near to impossible to do the final scene. We weren’t even allowed to take group photos because it wasn’t socially distanced”, said Marshall. “I’m proud of the show we put on though and can’t wait to tell future generations about how difficult it is to put on a show with all of these guidelines. As someone who is going to continue in the performing and fine arts, it will be a lot easier as I have faced challenges I never will need to face again.”

Even with social distancing and mask requirements, it was nice to see the students get back to performing their usual skits, just like in the years past. “It’s not revealed in the movie that the butler is actually the person blackmailing all of our characters, and, in every ending in the play, Mr. Green arrests everyone and reveals that they’re all killers. In the play, each night, a new person accuses a different person of murdering someone”, said Marshall. “I also think the play is a lot funnier, since the writers had more time to revise the script and add in more jokes.”

Although the circumstances were quite different compared to normal years, many of the drama students were excited to have been able to perform.