For this year’s fall play, Our Town is coming to the auditorium of Dominion High School. Our Town tells the story of a fictional small American town between 1901 and 1913 and follows the everyday lives of its citizens. The play will have three showtimes, with opening night on November 30th at 7:30 pm, with the two following dates on December 1st at 7:30 pm and December 2nd at 3:00 pm.

Our Town has the goal of challenging the minds of the Dominion Community. Dr. Worth, the director of Our Town, said, “The ultimate theme is that every single moment of your life matters, no matter how mundane, and that we don’t really look at each other and we don’t really listen to each other, we don’t really appreciate very small moment that we get to be alive.”

The cast of Our Town is far-reaching. There are 22 cast members and four techies, this includes four Dominion teachers:, Mr. Burns, Mr. Haberman, Ms. Korsen, and Ms. Delisi. The cast and crew is also made up of students from all the grade levels., Dr. Worth said, “We cross the boundary of grade level [with] almost 50% of the techies and cast are freshman which is exciting, [and] we have freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the cast.”

This play also has the opportunity to make big changes in the theatre program, as there are no longer theatre classes offered at Dominion High School and Dr. Worth took over the program starting this year. Despite the loss of the theatre classes, Dr. Worth has big goals for this program starting with completely rebuilding, She said, “I’d love to have a full 5 blocks of theatre class so that we could have a full theatre program.”

She also mentioned the programs goals concerning presenting the program to a wider level, for example, “I would like to start competing in the thespian festivals, where students can do monologues and scenes, and they also have solos and duets, and one at competitions, so I hope to get the kids involved in those competitions.”

This play seems to have the potential to bring something unique and different to Titan Territory. Dr. Worth said, “I like shows that push the bounds of the audience. There is virtually no sets, there is virtually no props, it’s really just about people.” Dr. Worth expanded on this, “[The goal is to] tell people that even in that moment of watching the play, they should be fully present in the moment and fully embrace everything that is happening in that moment.”

Dr. Worth also expressed her desire for Our Town to reach the larger audience of the Dominion Community; and even the Sterling Community as a whole. She said, “I wanted to do something that I could really be outside the box on, so kids could really be excited about something really new, the community would be excited about something real.” Dr. Worth also explained the ways in which the theatre program was reaching out to the wider community, she said, “We have reached out to the senior citizens’ homes in the area and invited them to come because it is the kind of play that I think is really relevant to them.”

Dr. Worth said, “Its message is desperately need[ed] at Dominion High School. I think we race to the next thing all the time, from the moment you hit the door of Dominion High School all you think about is your freshman year of college.”

The importance of being connected with the community is stressed, as Dr. Worth said, “I want people to be fully invested in their school, I think if they could come to see the play and see the hard work the students have done, it will get them exciting about being a Dominion High School student, rather than being a future college student.”

Dominion had a lot of success at the Cappies last year for the work put into last year’s play, the theatre program was nominated for three Cappies, and Junior Saskia Hunter won for best-supporting actress in a play. Dr. Worth plans to continue this success and spread it to other aspects of the play, she said, “I hope to get our techies into the Cappies awards program and to have even more nominations from this show.”

Despite the already high goals of the theatre program, Dr. Worth wants to get her students and program recognized even higher in the future, she said, “Maybe within the next two, three years, [we would] be able to go to nationals and compete in their national competition.”