Since the first few months of school have passed by, clubs and organizations at OHS have had enough time to start working on the main events that go on throughout the year. In Theater, the fall play has been underway and was performed on November 13th-15th of 2025. 

In previous years, Theater had always done a fall musical and later a spring play, but that had to be reversed for the 2025-2026 school year because their originally picked performances had to be completely scratched and re-chosen. Despite this setback, the drama team has been able to adapt and take advantage of this change with the introduction of their fall play: Arsenic and Old Lace. 

“It was a hard transition at first. I know a lot of the kids were super disappointed to hear that we had to change the shows, but it is for the better in how we are doing things as well,” said Sedona Sutton, theater teacher. “I’m new to the school, so getting to know everyone and stuff like that has been such a fun experience.”

The change from a musical to a play has not seriously affected those involved in Drama, and the cast of Arsenic and Old Lace are very happy with the way things turned out. 

“We don’t usually do a play as the first show of our season, so it’s kind of been different…It’s been a really fun experience, especially because it’s a smaller cast. We’ve been able to bond a lot, and I’m really excited for the show to open,” said Rowan Balma, senior. 

Theater also shifted their rehearsals to extended ones, practicing at school until 10 p.m. The cast and crew dedicate a majority of their time during performance seasons to their shows, which generally has a couple of negative effects. 

“We’re all really tired. Our longer rehearsals have started, and we’re all really tired, so we were just kind of grumpy with each other…We’ve been super productive compared to last year, though. We’ve gotten everything done really fast,” said Madison Rosenbaum, junior. 

The extended rehearsals are draining, but being able to have an equal balance is the key for not only the cast, but tech and others involved as well. 

“I think one of the challenges has been just balancing out my personal life, school life, and extracurricular life. Our rehearsals keep getting later and later, so it’s going to be a little stressful…because it’s my first time as a lead in tech, but overall it’s been going pretty well,” said Emma Stuart, junior. 

The fall play, Arsenic and Old Lace, follows Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who finds out his two seemingly kind aunts, Martha and Abby, have been keeping a secret: they poison old men with wine that is arsenic-laced. The play is both comedic and dark, allowing the OHS students involved to be creative with the roles that they were cast as. 

“I really like the scene when Mortimer finds out that it was Martha and Abby who have been killing people, and he has this whole crazy reaction. I play Martha, and my friend Madison [Rosenbaum] plays Abby, and just his reaction to finding out that his aunts are these mass murderers, it’s so fun to do that scene and act so chill even though we’re killing people,” Balma said. 

Those involved in theater have a high anticipation for Arsenic and Old Lace and are thrilled to see everything that they have worked on get pieced together. 

“Just seeing everything come together once the characters are finally clicking, and we have the set and costumes and everything, like it finally just all starts to make sense. That’s probably the coolest part to see everything walk in a place,” Balma said. 

The cast is grateful for the support that they receive from their like-minded peers and highly appreciates the community that theater provides. 

“Everyone feels like they belong [in theater]. No one really makes one person feel excluded, everyone sort of just lets people live their own lives, and I think that’s really cool,” said Diego Arevalo, junior. 

For some, Arsenic and Old Lace will be one of the last shows performed during their high school career; the humorous play is a great note to end on. 

“I’m just really grateful for this experience. This is my last fall show as a senior, and I’ve been doing this for a while, so I’m just really grateful for this last opportunity to be surrounded by all these people that I love and just getting to go on stage and bring this awesome show to life,” Balma said.