On October 27th, Roosevelt’s theatre 6 class put on a production of Campfire Stories to prepare the many minds in the auditorium for halloween and all things spooky. For this special halloween production, Kelly Kitchens came to teach the aspiring actors of RHS how to make a Book-It production. Book-it is a term for a type of show put on where the actors take lines from books or short stories and transfer them directly onto the stage. This includes narration and dialogue being spoken by the many people in the spotlight. In only five weeks, theatre 6 mastered the skill of going from the page to the stage just in time for this halloween special.
To show off their innovative way of storytelling, they gave the audience four scary tales:
The Old Radio:
This spooky tale was about a boy named Connor and his love for taking things apart and putting them back together. One night, he was fiddling with an old radio that was recently given to him and he heard something that shook him to his core. The radio crackled with static, then settled on angry voices. After the arguing over the radio was heard, a gun shot rattled the radio on Connor’s work table. Connor had heard a live murder, and as if someone dying wasn’t bad enough, the murderers knew he had heard them. Connor had to go.
The Flicker, The Fingers, The Beat, The Sigh:
While four young teens are speeding drunkenly down the road in a large car, they hit a girl. This girl’s name was Canary, and her body was soon lifeless on the side of the road a few feet in front of the teen’s large car. Crying, screaming, and arguing could be heard from a mile away as the students looked the the limp body of sweet Canary. They had murdered her, and she was not going to let this slide. Canary haunted the four kids for eternity after they threw her body into an abyss. All that would be left of her is the flicker of eyelids, the brush of soft fingers, the faint beating of a heart, and a quiet sigh.
Harry:
This Book-it story was about a father, his adopted daughter, and her imaginary friend Harry. When hMr.James’s daughter seemed to be taking her imagination too far, he begins to worry. Why was his daughter slowly changing? Why does she keep insisting that Harry is real? After questioning what is going on with his beloved little girl, he sees something quite strange one day. Mr. James’s little girl was walking alongside him, and he swore that he saw the faint and slender shadow of a boy next to her. His mind began to fade. He was losing it. He decided to go back to the adoption center where he got his baby, and he found out that something was gravely wrong with the situation. When his daughter was still a baby, she had a brother named Harry. In a whirlwind of fear and questions, Mr. James stops for a second, only to realize that his daughter and Harry were nowhere to be seen.
The Birds Of Azalea Street:
Out of all of the campfire stories, this one was the story that settled most with the audience. It’s sense of reality and true possibility were harrowing and completely frightening. Three girls were hanging out together one night when they saw something strange in the house next door. The creepy neighbor that always seems to be looking hungrily at the girl’s chest and back side, was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that caught their eyes was a beautiful woman surrounded by copious amounts of dead birds scattered on his lawn. After debating whether or not they should go over and warn the woman about the neighbor’s pervish tendencies, they decided that is was the right thing to do. Once inside the house, the three best friends were faced with pictures placed on every inch of furniture. The pictures were familiar. This was because they were pictures of the three teenage girls. Sleeping, laughing, undressing, he had them all.
If you missed these scary Campfire Stories from round one, do not fret. The Roosevelt theatre will be putting on a second round of Book-It called Christmas Carols on December 12th!
Graphic By: Eve Scarborough
