The Mouse Trap

This October 20, 21, and 22, the Sierra Vista theatre department showcased their fall play, The MouseTrap. The play takes place in 1952 in Mr. and Mrs. Ralston’s newly opened bed and breakfast inn, Monkswell Manor. The play additionally introduces five other characters: Christopher Wren, Mrs. Boyle, Major Metcalf, Miss Casewell, and Mr. Paravicini.  Early in the play, the audience and characters discover that they are snowed in with a murderer among them. Because of the urgent and threatening situation involving the mysterious people staying in Monkswell Manor, the police department sends in a detective to protect the innocent. In order to make The Mousetrap a success, the stage crew, actors, and directors challenged themselves by demonstrating their best efforts physically as well as mentally, in order to perform and present this play.

In preparation of this play, Sierra Vista theatre department began promotional activities to increase support for their production including previews of the play, as well as, classroom performances. While class to class advertising succeeded in capturing the attention of students, the cast expressed their dissatisfaction when it came to previews. Alexandria Mikael Mata, the plays stage manager, reveals, “I felt that the previews of the play were honestly lacking, I thought that not as many classes showed up as I originally thought would have, however, they were good promotions regardless.” Numerous students who did attend these previews claimed that they were “very entertaining” and “included great actors as well as great sets.” Despite the uncertainty expressed by the student staff, Mrs. Whittenberger, the theatre teacher and director, reveals, “I think that the previews were successful in that most of the students were engaged and interested in the presentation. I did see some students who were at the previews show up to watch the play.” 

Sierra Vista’s actors and crew did an amazing job producing this play. Each actor effectively portrays their character and grasps the attention of the audience substantially as the plot thickens. Mrs. Whittenberger made sure to take these factors into account when casting, “I think that each student’s personality fits their character appropriately.  I enjoyed seeing many of the students grow through this opportunity to perform.” Mata adds, “I believe that our talented actors performed quite well in their roles, they portrayed their characters with much humour and skill and it was always entertaining to watch certain scenes and get to work with them.” Mata says that throughout rehearsals and showings, each cast member managed to “adequately improve their skills.” Furthermore, senior Laura Nieland whose roles include: Mollie Ralston, in The Mousetrap, Anne Frank, in The Diary of Anne Frank, and Sandy Olsson, in Grease, observes, “With the roles we had been given, despite some of us being placed where we hadn’t originally auditioned, I think by the time we performed the show we stepped up and made fitting character choices to entertain the audience. I believe the play was cast with careful decision making by Mrs. Whittenberger. She never jumps too quickly into posting a cast list because she makes sure that everyone has a fair chance with each role without playing any favourites.” 

Aside from acting, the technical crew did a phenomenal job producing the play. Although relatively small, each student fully committed themselves to this production and managed to produce the play with such little time to prepare. Mata, the student leader of the technical theatre department expresses how little time they were given to prepare, “The technical work did prove itself a hassle and struggle to work through and understand in a short period of time.” Mata also spoke out on practice times, “the technicians rehearsed almost every day after school for tech rehearsals for about less than two weeks after school until 5pm.” Due to these circumstances there were some “slight hiccups” that occurred. Laura Nieland responded to these complications, “While we do have our moments where we stress and freak out, we make sure to calm down and let each other know that it’s alright and that we just simply move on and work to improve.”

Even with the occasional complication, the cast and crew managed to successfully plan and execute their show. Many of the members attribute some of this success to the amazing community that was built throughout their time together.  Nieland states, “ I think the play was executed rather well under the time constraints that we had. Putting on a show is difficult in all areas, so we were working with everything we had to our best ability. There is always room for improvement, but overall I believe everyone is proud of the work they did manage to accomplish.” Additionally, Mrs. Whittenberger expresses, “I think that the show was very successful.”  

Towards the end of the play, after revealing family ties, murderers, and plot twists everyone lives happily. After the success of this fall play, Mrs. Whittenberger plans for future productions. Some of these plans include “some comedies in the winter, and then a musical in the spring.” The spring musical will be Cinderella, auditions will take place November 29 through December 2 after school. Make sure to come and support Sierra Vista’s cast and crew.