Maura Brunt ‘27
EE Staff Writer
Earlier this month, on Friday November 1st and Saturday November 2nd, students, families, and people around Trumbull and nearby areas had the opportunity to see A Simpler Time. A Simpler Time was the THeSpians 2024 fully student directed fall play. The effort that students involved in this play put in was clearly visible as everything from the costumes the characters wore and the visual and lighting effects to the acting of the students was well received.
A Simple Time involves 3 characters – Taylor, Chris, and Marley – who decide to use a time machine in attempts of avoiding present day problems and to find a “simpler time”. They travel throughout all different areas and get to experience parts of historical events or figures’ lives that were not as pleasant as they previously thought. Some of these events include the Salem witch trials, the founding fathers – and mothers – creation of the Constitution, and the possible futures we may face. In each of these different scenes, they learned about the struggles hidden behind some of these historically significant and known time periods and people, before ending back up in the present and appreciating their lives.
Students involved in this play had a busy agenda and put a lot of energy into it. According to sophomore Giada Licursi, who was part of the Tech: “We put in over a month of effort into staying after school and making all new props, costumes, sets, and new lighting combinations. The effort was all worth it to see the show come together in the end.”
Productions like these require a lot of students and a lot of talent and hard work, but the students were able to pull it off and have two successful nights. As mentioned earlier, this play was fully student directed, by students Libby Caron, Bella Cabral, Lily Miller, Olivia Tetu and Izzy Corica.
With so many different scenes, many different audience members had different favorite parts of the show. According to sophomore Frankie Antonini, “A Simpler Time was such a funny show! I loved how they incorporated modern comedy to the jokes already added to the show! And, they played Fein.”
Nola Somerville said, “I really liked the telephone operator scene, especially because I thought the staging was really well done, and the actors performed the material really well, as well as the story being funny.” Overall, all students and families watching the show enjoyed it and appreciated the students’ work.
Theater and the arts are of very significant interest to many of Trumbull High’s students. While some students express this through joining and being a part of the THeSpians, there are also many other programs and opportunities that students also take advantage of, including the Regional Center for the Arts, TYA and Trumbull High’s own Drama classes.
THS offers 5 different Drama classes, which many of the THeSpians also take. Some of them include Theater Performance I, Theater Tech I, and Theater Exploration: Plays, among others.
The THeSpians have been a long running theater group, with some of their recent productions being their Mean Girls Musical last spring, The Alibis, and their 42nd Street Musical production- which have all been viewed highly and have even gotten some of their actors and crew nominated for Halos Awards.
The THeSpians provide a caring community for many different people, with all different skills and interests-from people who love the technological aspect of theater to people who love dancing, singing or just being on stage. The THeSpians have a bright future ahead of them, with their spring musical being Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Photo courtesy: TrumbullTheatre Instagram