Westford Academy Theater Arts will be performing “Ride,” a short play directed by senior Abigail Curran, on Thursday, Oct. 30 and Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. as well as on Friday, Nov. 7 and Friday, Oct. 31 at 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the WA Black Box. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.
The play is about two girls who work at a farm stand together named Molly and Carrie. In the play, Carrie is enamoured by Molly’s new car, but Molly does not like it at all. Carrie is curious as to why her coworker feels this way. It turns out, Molly caught her dad cheating on her mom and confronted him about it. During the confrontation, her dad choked her so hard it left a bruise. So, Molly invites Carrie on a road trip to beat up her dad’s girlfriend.
“The rest of the show is about friendship, loss, Anne Frank analogies, and why it isn’t a good idea to have an 11 year old be in charge of directions for a cross-country road trip,” Curran said.
According to freshman actor Alexia Towne, the cast is facing some struggles with acting out a few lines and are hoping for the best outcome. She believes that there are some things that could be worked on in the play, including remembering all their lines and acting out certain parts of the play better. Towne said that overall the cast should be ready for their performance and are going to do their best with what they have.
“As of now, there are a few touch-ups and tech elements I would like to work on. Other than those nitpicky things, I would say we are in a really good spot. We had our preview on Friday, and it went really well,” Curran said. “We had to have the preview earlier than intended due to scheduling conflicts and to maximize the amount of people who could come, but we were ready. I am very proud of where we are right now, and I am just trying to get the show to the best it can be before the show goes up.”
According to Curran, if given more time, she would have liked to take the actors on some team bonding activities to get a better feel of the farm life so they could relate more to the play.
“Not only would it be fun for everyone involved and provide some team bonding, but theater is all about truth telling. And if the actors and technicians don’t know how to accurately portray what it looks and feels like to work at a farm stand, then who is to say the audience will believe their portrayal?” Curran said.
