Lower Lake >> Seated on stage surrounded by cast members and classmates dressed in silver-sequined nun habits, Lower Lake High School junior Chloe Cox grew emotional as she talked about her years as a drama student. “I didn’t really feel at place or in a particular group, I felt out of everything,” she said, her voice growing thick with tears. “Drama and Miss Lahr really helped me find my place, and that’s really what’s kept me here.”
Cox has been acting, singing and dancing under the guidance of Tracy Lahr, LLHS drama teacher, since the seventh grade. When she entered high school, she scored the lead in the spring musical, donning a powder blue dress for her role as Cinderella. Her sophomore year she traded one Disney princess for another, snagging the lead in “The Little Mermaid.”
But this year, she left behind the glass slippers and talking shellfish, landing the lead in “Sister Act.” With curled platinum hair, she strutted across a stage as Deloris, the play’s sassy singer who is forced to hide in a convent after witnessing a murder.
Sister Act takes place this weekend at the Lower Lake High School. The musical features a cast of 22, numerous ensembles, and songs that stretch out for six or seven minutes. To say that it was challenging to pull the show together in less than two months might be an understatement.
However, the cast and crew worked tirelessly to pull off the production, putting together their own choreography when time was limited. Whatever Lahr threw at her students, they handled in admirable fashion.
“We don’t let them say they can’t do it, because they’re gonna do it,” said Lahr.
Tensions ran high and attitudes came out to play, Lahr readily admitted. “We work hard, and through that hard work comes stress, and through that stress comes attitudes, from me and them,” she added, “but if we didn’t have that stress then we wouldn’t push so hard to make what happens on that stage happen.”
Natalie Carte, who plays Sister Marry Lazarus, compared putting on a play to a sporting event. Drama is not all fun and games. Everyone gets tired, everyone becomes irritated, and at least a few people swear they’re not going to participate in another play. But in the end, they always return.
“People try to act like being in drama is fun,” she said, “but honestly, it’s a lot of hard work. You really do have to put your most effort out there.”
But despite high stress levels and short tempers, all was forgiven at the end of the day. This is because the LLHS drama department is a family. Lahr even calls her students her “babies” and they in turn refer to her as “mama.” When they go off and have kids, their children call her “grand-mama.” Lahr recalled her early days of teaching, when she was just 23 and fresh out of college, and a mentor told her never to touch or hug her students. That lasted one year.
“These are my kids, I love them, and I know that what I give to them I get right back,” she stressed.
Half the cast are seniors, and the majority of those seniors have been with Lahr since the seventh grade. Carte was just 12 when she performed as an ensemble member in Legally Blonde. From the opening night, she’s been in love with every aspect of the performing arts, and has returned again and again, for play after play.
“I remember that was the greatest thrill of my life: the adrenaline of running backstage, quick changing people,” said Carte.
And so she, along with most every student in Sister Act, found a home with Lahr, with the drama program at LLHS, and with her fellow actors.
The cast of Sister Act take to the stage today at 7:30 p.m. in the LLHS Multipurpose Room. The show closes Sunday at 2 p.m. LLHS is located at 9430 Lake St.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
