'The Boyfriend" praised

    “The 1920’s did exist in Europe too you know,” said senior Skylar Leslie to the audience.  

    Leslie, who played one of the ‘young ladies,’ along with fellow senior Jenni Patton, who  played the role of the eccentric French maid Hortense, set the scene in their introduction for the AHS Theatre Department’s production of “The Boyfriend.”

    The humorous lines, excellent coordination and outstanding musical numbers continued non-stop throughout the story of six girls searching for love and in some cases money, at the prestigious Madame Dubonnet’s School for Young Ladies. The cast’s effort was evident as the pit Orchestra, led by band teacher Jack Elgin, synchronized flawlessly with the actors singing.

    “They [the band] practiced by themselves while we practiced by ourselves then we joined up,” said senior  actor Eric Jurenas.

    Jurenas played Percy, a wealthy American trying to court Maisie, played by junior Natalia Schwien, one of the ladies from the school.  Both performed one of several duets in “Won’t You Charleston with Me?”

    Another tricky part to performing this musical was learning and successfully executing the accents that the French characters had.  Not only did the actors and actresses have to learn the accent, but utilize them without hesitation.  Many of the songs also had to be sung using a French accent as well, which was an extremely difficult task. “We stressed watching PBS and things like that [for accents]. They worked really hard,” said Theatre Director Vicki Farish.

    “I basically just listened to Jenni because she had a really good accent,” said senior Alaina Talley, who played Madame Dubonnet.

    The musical was a fitting showcase of the actors’ and actresses’ work of the past few months, and really proved that great effort yields good results. The cast, audience, and director all seemed to be happy with the outcome.

     “I was very pleased [with the performance],” said Farish.