By: Ken Scarboro

Cactus Flower is a love triangle. No, a love square. It involves a dentist, a receptionist, a play write, and a young record store worker. This particular love story is set in the summer of 1967, the Summer of Love.   Most of the actors did a good job, and the sets were beautiful and very well made.   Knowing some of the students in the theater tech class, I was aware of all of the hard work that was put into them.

Now we come to the portion that was a disapointment.   If I had to rank Cactus Flower among the other WHS productions, I would rank it in the bottom half.   In general the acting was hardly on par with other productions in the past, such as Lion in Winter, Clue, or The Pink Panther. Even the actors who have proven to be talented in the past did only a mediocre job in Cactus Flower .   This brings me to my next point.   Our sets have always been very good, and the acting is good. However, in the case of Cactus Flower , the acting is less than exemplary.   This gap in quality of acting and quality of set appears to me to be because of a focus on visual presentation over the actors' ability.   Over complicated sets tend to distract the viewer from the talent of the actors, and lower the overall quality of the production.

Ten dollars.   Cost of a movie at the Roxy: $9.50.   For less than the cost of our play we could see a major motion picture with professional acting and large budget special effects and locations.   However I can understand the preference for live theater because it is a very different experience.   Now I originally thought the high price was due to the complicated sets and costumes.   Our drama department has been guilty of high prices due to materials needed for sets and costumes in the past.   All the more reason we should focus on the acting and less on the sets so we can have better productions and lower prices, more in the budget of a teenager.   However I was informed by members of the drama department that the higher prices of this production was due to the cost of plays at Santa Rosa and Healdsburg.   I have seen plays at both Healdsburg and Santa Rosa, and while our department is nipping at Santa Rosa's heels, we are far better than Healdsburg's.   Now wouldn't it make sense if we have a better product, and the ability to charge less and still make profit to do so and receive more business?   When I saw the play on the Sunday evening showing I saw at least half a dozen students walk away due to the pricing; and with no student or even ASB sticker discount that provides even less motive for our own students to seen the play.

By: Megan Colburn

Many of you heard the buzz about the new play, Cactus Flower. The first weekend in December, the Jaguar Troupe performed the '60's comedy, which was also performed in 1999 by the first Jaguar Troupe. I attended two of the plays myself, which were very good. I thought it was one of the best plays I've ever seen; but then again, I've only ever seen three.

For those of you who don't know the plot, a middle-aged dentist, played by Elias Smith, has a relationship with young Toni Simmons, played by Laura Brewer. Originally, he didn't want a long-term relationship, so he told her that he had a wife and three children. But now he wants to move the relationship forward. So, he tells her he wants a divorce, and enlists the help of his assistant Stephanie Dickinson, portrayed by Courtney Sheffield, to play his wife. There are several twists in the plot that keep you interested; the assistant is in love with the dentist, plus the witty playwright Igor Sullivan [Gaetano Giordanego], who lives next door to Toni.

The characters in themselves were amazing to watch, especially Igor. He didn't have a very big role in the main plot, but everyone loved his witty quips, his blunt observations, and of course, his numerous appearances in nothing but a bath towel. The character Toni was attractive in her shallow yet well-meaning feelings, and the dentist Julian Winston amused everyone with his self-centeredness. Stephanie Dickenson seemed to be the so-called 'straight man' of the play, but even she was ridiculous at one time or another.

The actors, when onstage, had such charm that you forgot they are your peers, and seem like professional actors. The characters were realistic, and I noted a lot of exquisite details involved in the sets and costumes that must have taken days to complete. It must be admitted, there were some flaws, but not in the play itself. The ticket prices were high at ten dollars, but the drama department needs funds desperately.  

Overall, the play was very fun to watch- it has been described as having a 'Friends-like humor'. There were several complaints that people had of the play, but they were talking about the drama department, not the play itself. Mostly, I just felt sorry for the tech people backstage. They didn't get to watch and enjoy it fully.