Salem Drama Students Bring 'Prom' To Life On Stage With 3 Performances

SALEM, MA — Salem High drama students will bring a story of love, acceptance and standing up for oneself to life on the stage this weekend with three performances of the Drama Desk Award-winning musical "The Prom: School Edition."

The musical is centered around a group of Broadway stars who disrupt a small Indiana town as they rally behind a teen girl who wants to bring her girlfriend to the senior prom.

"It's obviously a very topical subject," Salem High theater teacher and director Leah Hamilton French said. "It's heartfelt, funny and a bit irreverent. At a pivotal moment, the main character Emma sings, 'I'm who I am, and I think that’s worth fighting for.'

"As a teacher, that is what I most hope for the young people I work with — that they develop their sense of self and self-advocacy. So it was a story I could get behind, while also being joyful and a good fit for our performers and technicians."

Performances are Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. The run time is about 2 hours, 15 minutes, with a brief intermission. Presale tickets are available here. Admission is $10 for students, seniors, and active military; and $15 general admission.

While Hamilton French said the production itself is certain to evoke emotion, it has extra meaning for her. This show’s seniors were freshmen when she came to SHS for the 2022-23 school year.

"This is our full circle moment as a department," she said. "Four years ago, we were still coming back from masked and remote learning, where kids spent significant time alone and behind screens. The bravery, collaboration, and hand skills required from theater is a very heavy lift.

"It has been wonderful to see our performers and crew members grow those skills as we regrew our department. We now have almost 30 kids working backstage and as many onstage."

She said show also deeply resonates with her cast.

"I've always been a socially anxious kid, but drama has always brought me out of my shell, especially in high school," said senior August Hunter, Drama Club president, who plays the lead role of Barry Glickman. "During the pandemic, we cancelled my sixth-grade show, didn’t do a seventh-grade show, and eighth grade still didn't feel right.

"So getting back into theater in high school really helped bring back that spark that I hadn't felt since elementary school and set me up for what I am going to do next, which is study theater in college. I've gained a stronger sense of self through doing theater, and this show especially hits hard as it relates to my queer identity."

Hamilton French said she sees a sustained, bright future for the school's drama program.

"Our students have taken on a lot of leadership as they have grown," she said. "In addition to honing their performance skills over the years as they rose from ensemble to lead roles, many of our seniors help run warm-ups, coach younger castmates on lines, and set a positive tone in rehearsals.

"This year, I met with all the senior crew, and a lot of them have taken on directorial roles. There has been a lot of senior-to-freshman mentorship. We've emphasized passing the torch to our younger students."

Seniors Ella Jackson is the artistic director and lead scenic designer tasked with coordinating the show's 14 locations, Raymond Nguyen is mentoring a freshman cohort in lighting design, and Lizzy Mahady rose from creating props and scenery as a freshman to serving as assistant director for "The Prom."

Jackson plans to attend college to study theater production and design.

"I feel so passionate about it now," she said. "At some point, I realized it was more than just an after-school activity, but something that I could do for my life. I started without having a sense of who I was going to be, now I am graduating happy and content with the person I've become."

In spirit with the district's strategic plan core value of belonging, the show will run with several add-on features:

• Consistent with the show's premise, the North Shore Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth (NAGLY) will have a presence in the lobby to connect audience members with resources and information.
• Audience members are asked to bring and donate clean and gently used formal wear to the Clothing Connection to benefit students unable to afford such attire.
• A photo booth will be set up in the SHS lobby, and audience members are encouraged to dress for the occasion.

SHS Career Technical Education graphic design students, under the direction of teacher Jennifer Toler, created the graphics for the show. The winning designs of senior Gemma Murphy, as chosen by cast and crew, were used for the program book, posters, and promotional materials.