Building Our Town
In Cary Academy’s first year, the Upper School was open only to 9th and 10th graders. Everything we did that year was a first; it was a lot of work and a lot of fun, too. Here we were, on a brand new campus that was still under construction. We were all strangers to one another, and it truly felt like we were all headed out together on a big new adventure into the future.
The theater in Berger Hall was still under construction, so we produced our first Upper School show in Building V at SAS during the Spring Trimester. I selected Our Town by Thornton Wilder. We rehearsed for weeks in what was then called the Telecom Room, which is the big room in the Admin Building. We were fortunate enough to have about two weeks of rehearsals in Building V. There was an exceptional tech crew, and we used simple costumes and props. For scenery, we used projected slides of American painters from the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The production had a real interdisciplinary feel as well as a sense of looking back into the past while leaning into the future.
The students did an amazing job in that show, and it felt like a true community was coming into shape. Friendships were being made among a bunch of strangers who took the risk of being the first ones through. That was a long time ago, and memory plays its own games. After 25 years, I still associate some of those students with the characters they played in Our Town. Those kids have all grown up by now and are moving through careers and family life. I’m hoping they and others from the beginning years of Cary Academy get a chance to reflect and re-experience some of the fun and excitement of that nascent time.
Michael Hayes, Arts Director
CARY ACADEMY THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
(* denotes a musical)
1997-1998
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat* (MS)
Our Town (US)
1998-1999
Antigone (MS)
Working* (US)
1999-2000
Reckless (US)
Oklahoma!* (MS)
The Fantastiks* (US)
2000-2001
Fiddler on the Roof* (MS)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (US)
2001-2002
Crow and Weasel (MS)
Little Shop of Horrors* (US)
2002-2003
The King and I* (MS/US)
2003-2004
Bang Bang You’re Dead (US) [studio]
The Wizard of OZ* (MS/US)
2004-2005
Monkey! (MS)
Rhinoceros (US)
2005-2006
Peter Pan* (MS/US)
2006-2007
Der Struwwelpeter (MS) [studio]
Waiting For Lefty and The American Dream (US)
2007-2008
The Secret Garden* (MS/US)
2008-2009
Wiley and the Hairy Man (MS) [studio]
Les Miserables School Edition* (MS/US chorus classes)
2009-2010
A Thousand Cranes (MS) [modified thrust w/onstage audience seating]
The Water Engine (US)
2010-2011
Into the Woods* (MS/US)
2011-2012
Antigone (MS)
4 by Christopher Durang (US) [studio]
Senior Theater Showcase: Shakespeare’s R & J (excerpts)
2012-2013
Alice in Wonderland (MS/US: first all-school play; performed in library)
2013-2014
Seussical* (MS/US)
Senior Theater Showcase: Lebensraum [studio]
2014-2015
Metamorphoses (US) [studio]
#AMSND (MS) [studio]
2015-2016
Brundibár* (MS/US)
2016-2017 – CA’s 20th Anniversary
MusiCAl!* (MS/US)
2017-2018
Dracula (US, 10-12) [studio]
The Lion King Jr.* (MS, 6-9)
2018-2019
The Music Man* (MS/US)
2019-2020
When Suddenly…: An Evening of Comedies by Molière and Chekhov (US) [studio]
Unforgetting: Stories by Brian Andreas (MS) [modified thrust w/onstage audience seating]
2020-2021
The Theory of Relativity* (US) [recorded/shared content; no live audience]