“An elephant is not its actions. An elephant isn’t cute, isn’t a friend, isn’t a symbol for something else. An elephant is an elephant. And, an elephant is an investment.” As the ringmaster announces these bitter words and they echo throughout the theater, it is not hard to tell this play is not a drama musical about two cute high school students falling in love; this one is different.
Following their production of “High School Musical,” Drama Club decided to focus on a more somber and dramatic play. Instead of using flashy pop dance numbers to entertain its audience, “Elephant’s Graveyard” tells the true story of an early twentieth-century town that hanged an elephant after it killed one of its trainers.
“This play is different from other plays in general,” director and twelfth-grader Amanda Gerulski said. “As it is told through short monologues rather than dialogue, it branches away from Drama Club’s typical comedic shows during the school year and follows our trend of having dramatic summer productions.”
Wanting to bring “Elephant’s Graveyard” to the audience since last year, Gerulski finally has the chance to do so. She has been in Drama Club since sixth grade, and this is her eleventh play. She organized rehearsals outside of Pine View at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center over the summer and also had the task of making minor edits to the script as to appropriately fit a Pine View audience.
Playing the circus ringmaster, one of the lead roles, twelfth-grader Sloane Kolesar shares Gerulski’s love for the play. “It’s based off a real event. It’s very emotional, very connected to real life events and brings a little bit of history to present day,” Kolesar said. “It’s also a good opportunity for drama club to do a more serious production … this is really good chance to get into our inner mood and get those raw acting skills out that we don’t usually use.”
“Elephant’s Graveyard” will be playing at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center Oct. 4. “As always, this show has had nothing but my love,” Gerulski said. “I have never felt so proud of a cast and so proud of a show that we have pulled together.”