DELINQUENTS--Senior Play 2017

On November 10, 2017, Delinquents was performed on the Hyland stage. The actors and crew did a wonderful job.

Back in April of 2017, I sat down with Caitlin Taylor and Lydia SunderRaj (the graduating senior class of 2018) to discuss possible ideas. After much brainstorming, we decided that they would play prison inmates.

Each year I leave it up to the seniors to decide who else will be in the cast. Usually that means involving the juniors. Although the juniors did end up being involved backstage, Caitlyn and Lydia threw me a curve by requesting we include the new batch of seventh graders. It was a great idea.

This led to the concept of the two inmates recalling their childhood. In fact, we had two seventh graders in mind to play Caitlyn and Lydia as young children.

It sounded like a perfect plan, but not all the seventh graders were interested or able to jump in. Another complication—Katarina (Caitlin’s little sister), who was going to play Caitlyn as a young girl, ended up growing taller than Caitlin over the summer.

The end result—Caitlyn and Lydia ended up playing themselves as little girls. Katarina and two other seventh graders (Nate Becker and Brody White) played their friends.

Because of everyone’s hard work and great acting, it turned out really well.

For this play, I tried something different. The senior plays are always one act, with maybe two or three scenes at the most. Since this story required multiple flashbacks, we had seven scenes.

Because of a recent conversation with a friend about the movie director Christopher Nolan and how his movies often progress non-chronologically, I structured the play so that as the primary story progressed forward, the flashbacks moved backwards.

I think I was also influenced by another filmmaker. In Dead Poet Society, I always thought it was pretty cool how the writer combined two significant gestures for the climactic point (standing on the desk + “O Captain, My Captain”). They had both had their own profound meaning earlier in the film. Combining them into one moment was even more profound.

I tried to do this in Delinquents (piggy back ride + “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”).

When I first started working on the script, I knew I wanted to use an old song of some sort. At first, I had “You Are My Sunshine” in mind. But when I talked to Mark Phillips, he pointed out that because of copyright limitations, I would have to use a song that was in the public domain. This meant finding a song that was published before 1923. I dug around and spotted “Tipperary.” The first time I heard that song was in the film Das Boot and I always thought it was catchy.

In general, I was a little uneasy that this play would rely on a lot of drama, rather than just comedy and action / special effects. But the actors made it work!