Last week, the Crusader Players held auditions for this year’s fall play, You Can’t Take It With You. The story is comedic, and takes place entirely in the large house of a slightly odd New York City family.

A lot of the students were very excited to get back to a sense of normalcy and have a play this fall. Many were familiar with the show beforehand, and are excited to put it on.

“I was familiar with the show, which I was pretty thankful for! It’s a seriously funny show and I’m glad we get to perform it,” senior Emily Baird said.

The actors were only given the weekend to prepare a comedic monologue for their auditions, but that didn’t stop them from auditioning their hearts out.

“I chose my monologue pretty immediately. I’m notorious for over preparing for auditions, but in my head you can never be too prepared!” senior Charlie Wehde said.

Everyone who auditioned was given a callback. A callback is when the director has the actors come back to read lines from the script to get a better understanding of who they want to play each role. For the callbacks, the actors had to read lines from the script with other actors and sometimes just by themselves.

“I think we had some amazing and talented people at callbacks, and this show is going to be fun and hilarious!” junior Jacob Moore said.

During auditions and callbacks, Mrs. Findley openly discussed the options of double casting the show— that way, she would not have to cut people and everyone could be a part of the production while still being safe and cautious due to the pandemic.

Mrs. Findley announced a double casted show and cast list last Friday, but with a twist. Only the girls were double casted. All the male parts had the same character, but the female roles changed depending on the two casts. She did this in order to incorporate everyone who auditioned, while keeping everyone safe.

Safety is still top priority within all the fun. There is social distancing in the PAC, masks are required and there is, of course, hand sanitizer and wipes for cleaning. The two casts will rehearse at different times to help limit the number of people in the same area. She is also going to try and have rehearsals outside, so masks can come off and everyone gets fresh air!

Overall, everyone is excited to be back and to perform on stage!