Despite ice ages, natural disasters and wars, the world continues to move forward each day.
Cherry Hill High School East’s International Thespian Society Troupe No. 213 will present “The Skin of Our Teeth,” a farcical comedy, on Friday, Nov. 30, Saturday, Dec. 1, Friday, Dec. 7 and Saturday, Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the East theatre.
Tickets can be reserved for $10.
“The human race always seems to make it by ‘The Skin of our Teeth,’” said Play Director Tom Weaver, who has been producing plays at the school for 36 years.
The Pulitzer Prize winning play was written in 1942 by Thornton Wilder, the “Our Town” playwright, and borrows its title from the Book of Job in the Bible.
“I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth,” reads the New International Version of Job 19:20.
Many of the characters have Biblical representations, Weaver said, and the play has three acts and two intermissions.
Act one is the beginning of time, act two focuses on Genesis and the Great Flood (taking place on the Atlantic City boardwalk) and act three starts with a world war just ending.
The lead character, George Antrobus, is Adam and his wife is Eve.
Their psychopath son, Henry, depicts Cain.
“When we move to act three, Henry is the epitome of evil,” Weaver said. “He’s an evil dictator.”
Henry, he said, makes it to the rank of general from corporal, which parallels Adolf Hitler.
“Act three is the recovery from the world war,” Weaver said, with a disheveled and blown apart set.
In all, Weaver said, the play simply is a comment on the human race, with appearances by a dinosaur and wooly mammoth, though they get sent out of the world quite quickly.
The crazy worry about the end of the world comes at the perfect time.
“That’s when we open,” Weaver said, and the actors will have some fun with that.
The two-hour long play itself is tricky, he said, with contemporary Shakespeare-like wording.
Weaver first came across the play as a student teacher at Washington Township High School and found it to be “brilliant.”
“I’ve always wanted to do it,” he said.
This year, 83 students auditioned to take part in the two casts, and staff tries not to cut anyone in the production.
Luckily, there are plenty of goofy parts to go around.
“There’s something for everybody,” he said.
The student actors only have six weeks to learn their parts, but that’s a non-issue in the school, said Weaver.
“These kids are good,” he said. “I don’t mean that because I’m their coach or drama director. They’re exceptionally good.”
The school has several programs throughout the year in the performing arts department, as well as plenty of theatre and public speaking classes to choose from each period.
“They’re exposed to theatre on a regular basis,” he said. “Imagine being a football coach able to teach during the day what you’re going to practice later on.”
“These kids are really smart and really clever,” he added.
That sentiment is continual at the school, with administration and staff overcoming hurdles to make sure the performing arts programs keeps booming and stays unique.
“We have an excellent tradition of theatre here and we’re very, very proud of that,” Weaver said.
Students in all four grade levels will have parts in ‘The Skin of our Teeth” and there is a separate stage crew working on the scenery.
Wilder, in Weaver’s opinion, is one of the top five best playwrights of all time, with this play giving social commentary in an absurd way.
“We’re resilient,” said Weaver. “We don’t go away, despite how horrible mother earth can be to us sometimes or how we can be cruel to ourselves.”
Some district productions
Cherry Hill Public Schools District Spokeswoman Susan Bastnagel provided the following information.
East’s spring musical will be “Peter Pan.” Look out for that on March 1 and 8 at 7:30 p.m. and March 2, 3, 9 and 10 at 2 p.m. in the auditorium, 1750 Kresson Road.
West’s spring musical will be “Grease.” Look out for that on Feb. 22 and 23, March 1 and 2 at 7:30 p.m. as well as Feb. 24 at 2 p.m. in West’s new auditorium, 2010 Chapel Ave.
West’s fall play, “Treasure Island” is to be performed Nov. 15 and 16 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 17 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are sold at the door.
High school concert performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and admission is free.
Concerts at East take place in the auditorium and are as follows:
Dec. 13: Winter Choral/Orchestra Concert
Dec. 18: Winter Bands Concert
April 23: Spring Bands Concert
April 24: Spring Jazz Ensemble/Orchestra Concert
May 16: Spring Choral Concert
Concerts at West take place in the auditorium and are as follows:
Dec. 13: Winter Instrumental Concert
Dec. 20: Winter Choral Concert
March 21: Instrumental Festival Concert
May 23: Spring Choral Concert
June 5: Instrumental Pops Concert
