Glennallen High School Theater: Witness For The Prosecution By Agatha Christie

Courtroom Mystery Drama November 10th, 11th and 14th At GHS

GHS Theater Class (Photo, Misty Rude) 

GHS Theatre students are busy working on our fall play, Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution.” It will be performed at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday November 10, Friday November 11, and Monday November 14. 

Students have been and continue to be involved in every aspect of this production, from reading and selecting the play to evaluating each others’ auditions to costuming and set design. (Attached photos show some of these elements in process.) 

“Witness for the Prosecution” is a British courtroom drama about a young man who is accused of murder—and whose wife may or may not be out to condemn him. This play presents a new and exciting challenge to continuing Theatre students, who have until now performed mostly light-hearted comedies. Comedies are a crowd-pleasing “safe” choice because they are fun and suitable for all ages—and the action accompanying the lines helps to tell the story. Dramas, however, rely solely on the line delivery of the actors. They must tell the story clearly and believably through their onstage dialogue. Agatha Christie’s writing isn’t always easy to follow, but for those willing to stick with it, her story-telling is masterful and her plot twists are shockingly delightful. 

Tackling a play like “Witness” offers tremendous benefits to students. To name but a few, it helps expand their language skills, improve their diction (clarity of speech), and strengthen their ability to communicate difficult concepts. An additional bonus of this play is in offering several non-speaking or minimal-line roles to beginning Theatre students. Several of this year’s Theatre 2 students have begged to do this show ever since it was canceled due to COVID in the spring of 2020, and they have worked hard to prove their ability to meet the challenge of this heavily dialogue-driven production. We are so excited!

Due to the complexity of this play’s story line, it is not recommended for young children. Most simply won’t understand what’s going on and will quickly get antsy. We leave it to parents, of course, to determine whether their children will be able to follow the story or, if not, to sit quietly through the entire show. (This play will run longer, as it is a three-act rather than our customary two-act plays). However, Mrs. Lorence’s Travel and Geography class, which is raising money for their educational trip to Europe this summer, is offering child care in her upstairs HS classroom each night of the play. They are still determining whether this service will be donation-based or a flat fee, but either way, it will be less than the cost of a babysitter for the evening. 

As with all of our shows, the play itself is offered free of charge. We want anyone and everyone to be able to come, regardless of their ability to pay. That said, we gratefully accept donations at the door, which help to offset our production costs. These costs include script and royalty fees, costuming purchases, set-building supplies, etc. We are so thankful for the ongoing support our community gives us! And we so hope you’ll join us for this show.
--Misty Rude, Glennallen School