As classes come back from spring break to a clean slate and hot weather, students will have the chance to chill in the theater with Drama club’s scariest production yet of Dead Highway on May 6 and 7.

Drama club previously had 5 plays before this year’s production. With the plot being students leaving a high school on their way to a family member’s cabin in Tahoe with the threat of a zombie apocalypse.

Drama teacher and club advisor Steven Reed said students should come see Dead Highway to see their peers. “I think they’ll be surprised by some of their classmates doing something that they might not expect of them.”

“We’re going to have a dramatic performance with some comedic aspects but a lot of intense almost horror themes,” said Reed. 

The club put out flyers in mid-January to recruit more members, and according to Reed, they received a positive response. “I would say somewhere between 8 and 12 students that attend. We have a lot of fun.”

As of now, Drama club is in the stagecraft design phase. “Everyone’s got their characters down and their lines down. It’s more of the transitions on stage, the finer details,” said Reed. “And finding more zombies. If anyone wants to join us and be a zombie.”

Noah Quiroz, a freshman and zombie actor, said he joined drama after finishing wrestling. “It’s really fun and there’s different people to meet. Mr. Reed is so chill.”

Quiroz said, “I go out and there’s heck of zombies, and then someone throws something, and then we just all go there, and then we dance, like a zombie, and then eat people.”

Sophomore and club treasurer, Grace Douglas who’s favorite part is building sets, joined for her interest in drama and theater. “It’s really fun and Mr. Reed’s a really good teacher.”

Reed started teaching at Stagg in 2019, where there hadn’t been a full-time drama teacher in 10 years, but then COVID paused in-person school and got in the way of the start. However, since 2022, Drama club has been active and puts on a production every spring term. 

“I wanted to make a drama club because there is first an interest on campus in drama. Students want a drama club, and second it supports our drama production and we work towards the play that we do at the end of the year,” said Reed. 

Although it’s fun, the process of producing a play takes time and hard work, as challenges can arise.

“First is deciding on a script and deciding on who takes what character and then rehearsals four times a week,” said Reed.

“The biggest challenge we’ve run into in the past is the changing of students, turnover, as it’s called, there’s not always consistency throughout the entire year for a bunch of different reasons. But beginning and ending with that same group of students is a challenge.”

Whether it’s stagecraft responsibilities or acting, students are present in their roles. “It is a great gig. It hardly feels like work. I feel blessed to be the drama teacher, and I can’t believe I get paid to do it,” said Reed. 

Drama club will be having two showings of Dead Highway. May 6 will be limited to special invitations to select classes during school and May 7 will be open to the public after school, starting at 6:30.