Glass grad returns to stage play
By Casey Gillis on Apr. 21, 2010
(434) 385-5525
Students in E.C. Glass High School’s advanced acting class are gathered in the Alumni Studio Theatre, a small black box space, debating the speed of a song from Mike Whorley’s “When We Get Grown.”
The group sings the song twice, at different speeds, and a couple students pipe in, most worried that the faster version will be too hard for audiences to understand.
“This is something you wouldn’t normally get to do,” director Jim Ackley says, looking over at the group. “They realize they have an input.”
The students have been working with Whorley, a 1970 Glass grad, on the musical’s script since before Christmas and will be performing it at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Wednesday.
They’re doing what is called workshopping, a process all plays go through before a final version hits the stage. This is the first workshop on Whorley’s script, so Ackley says it’s going to be a different experience for audiences.
“It’s not a production you’re used to seeing,” he says. “It’s very unpolished, very rough.”
The first act will be performed like a typical play, and the second will be done in concert, with the students singing but not acting anything out. Afterward, they’ll solicit audience feedback that Whorley will use to further shape the script.
“We’re thrilled because we’re seeing our kids get the opportunity to birth a play,” Ackley says. “It’s a wonderful look at how it all comes together.”
After retiring as a letter carrier a few years ago, Whorley earned a degree in music composition at Lynchburg College, and “When We Get Grown” grew out of his senior recital, for which he had to come up with two production numbers.
Since then, “it has sort of taken on a life of its own,” he says.
He approached Ackley about the project over the summer, and it fit right in with Glass’ 100th anniversary season, which has brought in various alumni to work with students.
The collaboration began when he and the students read over the script, line by line, before the holidays.
“They said, ‘Mr. Whorley, we don’t talk like that,’” he says. “‘You use too many big words.’”
He rewrote most of it, and they began rehearsals after the theater department wrapped production on “The Music Man,” Glass’ spring musical.
The story follows a group of students who are pondering their future, and Whorley says the theme is simple: “Every kid, regardless of their background, has something to bring to the table. Everybody’s gift is important.”
He says he was inspired by his wife’s job as a special education teacher.
“Sometimes we think that only people in a certain mold have any possibility at a successful life,” he says, “and that’s just not the way it is.”
IF YOU’RE GOING
WHAT: When We Get Grown
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. tonight and Wednesday
WHERE: E.C. Glass High School’s Alumni Studio Theatre
ADMISSION: Free
INFO: (434) 522-3712
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