Paris, 1640. A war between France and Spain. Love. Jealousy. These are all themes you can anticipate from Advanced Drama’s first play of the year, Cyri. In this gender-swapped retelling of “Cyrano De Bergerac”, Cyrano, Robin and Christian are involved in a love triangle. Cyrano is a witty wordsmith with great swordsmanship and a large nose. Robin is the most handsome man in all of Paris; Christian is a stunning woman who stumbles over her words. Naturally, Robin falls for Christian but is disappointed when she is not as smart as she is beautiful. Cyrano helps Christian sound more eloquent and be the woman that Robin desires, but when a jealous countess learns of this, drama ensues.
“We’ve done a lot of comedies and so this is more action, more drama,” FHS Drama and Stagecraft teacher Tanya Fox said.
Cyri has been a favorite of Fox and Advanced Drama students for a while. At the end of the year, Fox gives her Advanced Drama class 15 plays to read and pick which two they would like to perform the following year. With 75% of nominations and Fox’s shared excitement, Cyri was chosen for this winter.
“We have a ton of really strong, powerful female leads,” Fox said. “And since our Advanced Drama class is more female presenting heavy, I wanted to give [this] cast great opportunities.”
This play will have sword fighting and 1600s costumes to make it more period accurate. Advanced Drama students attended a workshop with Silicon Valley Shakespeare to learn the basics of stage combat. The Drama department will be renting costumes since they do not own many 1600s costumes. Fox has been hard at work taking costume measurements, making a costume idea board and sending those to the rental company.
“We have a couple of students in Advanced Stagecraft who have taken French and, because [Cyri is] set in 1640s France, they are writing letters in French to be used as props,” Fox said. “The audience is never going to see this, but it adds that extra level of detail.”
Cyri is innovative in so many ways, and the prop designs show this better than anything. FHS senior Calvin Higgins, the set designer, designed a two-story set using computer-aided design technology to make sure that it is structurally sound before it gets built. FHS senior Pascal Waiblinger, the lighting designer, programmed and hung out a moving light fixture. The prop designer, FHS senior Gus Huie, made making paper props such as love letters and using coffee to make the papers look old and distressed. Shrubbery walls and other greenery will also be used as a nice addition to the stock scenery.
“My favorite part of rehearsal is after the scene has been planned out and we go through it all, saying our lines and seeing how people interpret certain blocking [stage positions],” FHS junior Mayar Alshathrm, who plays Christian, said. “I’m excited for people to see the sword fighting, all the characters and how the story goes.”
The actors have been equally hard at work. This play requires lots of memorizing, both in terms of lines and blocking, and everyone in the cast has been rehearsing their lines to make them their own. “We have a lot of time to memorize our lines, but we also have to meet certain deadlines,” Alshathrm said. “Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming when it gets close to the deadline, but it tends to be more chill when you set aside time for practice and use the time in class.”
Cyri will be performed Dec. 3-5 in the Shannon Theater, so if this play sounds like something you would enjoy, be sure to check it out.
