The RMHS Drama Club is performing the first adaptation ever of St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves this weekend.
The show will take place on Friday, February 6 and Saturday, Feb 7 at 7:30 pm, as well as Sunday, Feb 8 at 2:00 pm. The play is under the direction of RMHS Drama Director Natalie Cunha, Assistant Director Katie Donovan, and Technical Director Kevin Gerstner.
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves is an adaptation of Karen Russell’s short story under the same title. Russell is a well-established author from Oregon who has received numerous awards. The RMHS production will be the first stage adaptation of the story to be produced.
The play follows a group of children who have werewolves for parents and have grown up learning the ways of wolves. One day, they are captured by nuns who relocate them to a school named St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, where they are pressured to follow the ways of human life. The story highlights the theme of the struggle of assimilation and how different people react to it.
Cunha jumped at the chance to produce the play because of its important theme. “I reached out to the author by her website, thinking I would never hear back…She wrote back to my email and gave us her full blessing to workshop it,” she said.
Cunha mentioned that Russell had said, “Teachers and students are her heroes,” and allowed the RMHS drama program to take creative liberties, since it is not an official theater organization that will be profiting from the production.
Cunha and the rest of the drama team are looking forward to showing Russell their hard work, which will continue after this weekend as they prepare to compete in the METG One-Act Play festival. They are compiling a slideshow for Russell where they can display their script, as well as the world they have brought to life on stage.
Caitlin Honer (’28), who plays the main character, Claudette, described how with this play came the responsibility of writing the script and creating the world the actors would perform in. The process entailed scenework, as well as world and character development. Honer said, “It was so fun to work with everybody and dive into this world every single day.”
Honer also shared some of her thoughts on the drama program as a whole. “It’s the type of place where you could be there for hours and hours every week and never regret the time you spend there…It is so enjoyable to work with so many driven and kind people doing something that I love,” she stated.
The show is being produced with the assistance of the PSST (Parents Supporting Student Theatre), which is a parent-led group that helps to make the Drama Club possible.
Tickets can be bought online or in person. It should be noted that the play is recommended for ages 10+ due to mature themes and aggressive moments.
