Seniors Mary Learner, Julian Summey, Ben Fisher, and freshman Amanda Summey participate in An Evening with Stoppard and Ives at Cardinal Newman School.

On April 19 and 28, Cardinal Newman (CN) invited the community to spend "An Evening with Stoppard and Ives." Ives and Stoppard are playwrights with a new spin on Shakespeare's Hamlet . Students in grades seven through 12 practiced since January to bring the different plays to life on stage.

Patrick Boos, CN's new drama chair, said he was extremely nervous because this was an ambitious project to do with high school students. He chose this collection of plays because it afforded him a big cast to showcase the talent of the large group of graduating seniors.

Casey Morris's comic timing and larger than life characters, like the Player, provided a spark to lighten the dark life of Hamlet and his kin. His monkey-like movements in Words, Words, Words kept the audience pondering the ridiculous notion that a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters, typing into infinity will eventually produce Hamlet . Ninth grader Amanda Summey turned in a stellar performance. Ben Fisher was Milton the monkey and the slightly mad brooding Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Alex Leblanc and Julian Summey, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, memorized huge amounts of dialogue and delivered it with skill and wit. Eighth grader Zach Jones brought drama and life to the role of Hamlet in Fifteen Minute Hamlet and was purely hysterical as Alfred the Tragedian in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern . Seniors Alex Perez-Caballero and Mary Learner were excellent as Betty in Sure Thing and filled a number of other roles adding color and depth to the production. Paul Miranda was a great Claudius and Michael Francis was a hoot as Polonius and the palace guard. Supporting actors like Jordan Hardy whose crazy Ophelia was almost too good, helped create a great evening of entertainment.

Most of the seniors said they would like to continue with drama in some form after they leave Cardinal Newman. Julian Summey is headed for the College of Charleston, Casey Morris to UNC Asheville, and Ben Fisher is going to Emory University in Atlanta. Alex LaBlanc leaves for Spain soon after graduation. The underclassmen interviewed all plan to keep CN's drama program alive.