Students happily caught in Agatha Christie's ?Mousetrap'

Intermountain Catholic

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Eighth grade students from Blessed Sacrament School, Sandy, tour the set of ?King Lear? in the Adams Memorial Theatre at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. The students traveled to Cedar City to visit the festival and see a Play.

by Regina Farley

Blessed Sacrament School

SANDY — We awoke in the early hours of the morning. As we pulled into the parking lot of Blessed Sacrament School, we were instantly awake and ready to go. As we boarded the bus, our teacher, Mrs. Oritt, checked off our names. Everybody struggled for the seats in the back of the bus, and we all settled down. Right away we put on a movie and turned on iPods. Fifteen minutes later, we pulled out of the parking lot and the bus driver pulled over halfway down the street. The hot lunches were forgotten on the sidewalk, and parents chased down the bus trying to give us the cooler.

The next hours went by quickly, because we were either sleeping or in a half-trance. Most of us woke up refreshed when the sun came up, pulling off our sweatshirts and pulling down the shades in the bus. After an intense game of Truth or Dare, Mrs. Oritt announced we were about half an hour away from the Shakespearean Festival, our final destination.

As everybody scrambled to put stuff away, the excitement of the trip finally hit us: We were in Cedar City. We were going to spend the day acting and having fun with our class, not to mention seeing the famous play, Agatha Christie’s "Mousetrap."

We parked on the side of the road and went in and cleaned ourselves up. Right away we were whisked away to a backstage tour of The Randall Jones Memorial Theatre.

We went upstairs, walked through the set, saw where props were kept and even watched the sound technicians change batteries. Our tour guides, Marcella Rose Sciotto and Matt Burke, members of the cast of "Mousetrap," showed us their dressing rooms and explained their costumes, hair, and make-up. After a short walk across the street, we split up into two groups and started on workshops. Matt led a group in acting stretches and how to move on stage. Marcella’s group focused on communicating with other actors on stage through eye contact and body movement.

After lunch, we moved to the outdoor theater where the education director for the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Michael Bahr, told us about the life of Agatha Christie, and when and why she wrote "Mousetrap."

After a short question and answer session, we were moved into the Randall Theatre to watch "Mousetrap." As the lights went down, we could smell the mystery and excitement in the air. The play was magnificent and our class really enjoyed asking the actors questions about the play and having them tell about how they became actors and why.

As we boarded the bus for home, we once again unloaded our stuff and started playing games. After a short stop to pick up dinners at the Pastry Pub, we were soon on our way. Driving away, we watched as the sunset illuminated the rocks on the hills like gold.

It got dark, and we were having the time of our lives: food, movies, Truth or Dare, and more Truth or Dare. Along the way, we passed through Nephi, and all wondered how far away school was. We talked about the play and unanimously declared that we are going to perform a mystery play, too. We pulled into the parking lot at Blessed Sacrament School at around 9:00 p.m. and were ready to go home.

The next day we were all tired, but it was definitely worth it. We will never forget our awesome trip to Cedar City.

Farley is in the eighth grade at Blessed Sacrament School.