The Foreigner, Galena High School Drama Club’s production for the fall season of 2015 premiered on November 19, 2015, but not without controversy and problematic scheduling. Unfortunately some inclement winter weather arrived in Galena at midday and eventually forced Director Ron Jenkins to pull the plug on the Friday show.
“The only negative was having to cancel the Friday night performance due to the weather,” said Jenkins. “I think that we made the right call for safety’s sake, but I hope that it will always be fair weather on future show weekends.” Jenkins said. “The cancellation probably didn’t affect the overall attendance too much, but there may have been as many as fifty people who missed seeing the show because Friday would have been the only night that they could see it.”
The show’s overall attendance was fairly good, ranking just behind Boeing Boeing, GHS Drama Club’s fall production of last year. However the cancellation of Friday’s performance didn’t just affect the attendance, but also the cast of the show as well.
Luc Pham (‘17), who played David in The Foreigner, said, “The Friday night cancellation of the show obviously affected attendance. A lot of students who are too afraid to see it on Thursday because of homework are normally inclined to go on Friday night.”
But, the cancellation didn’t deter the cast, “I think the show went really well. It was the first play I felt fully confident in, and it utilized our cast’s acting talents to the fullest.. All the actors did a great job and the audience loved it,” said Pham. “The play itself is hilarious. The Foreigner is comedy gold: well-written and relentlessly funny, the perfect fit for our current group of actors. It’s fast-paced, sarcastic, a joy to be apart of, and everyone who came left happy.”
So while mother nature was not on the side of the GHS Drama Club, they were able to pull off two very successful shows that were certainly staples in the history of GHS and in the careers of the actors as well.