Craving zombies? DHS production will be full of them
By DAILY CHRONICLE
With Halloween rapidly approaching, the bewitching season is upon the county, and what better way to celebrate the season than with a good old fashioned zombie flick?
But what exactly goes into the making of such films, and what kinds of sick minds are responsible? This is the premise behind DeKalb High School’s theater production of Don Zolidis’ comedy, “The Craving.”
The play itself takes watchers through the inception of the screenplay, to the Hollywood process, through auditions and then the filming of this epic. However, unlike most horror films, “The Craving” didn’t start out as an homage to the undead; rather it was a moving, emotional drama, about a mother and daughter reconnecting after a long separation, by first-time playwright, Terry Morris (senior, Kayla Kennedy).
While it may have taken Hollywood a long time to take notice of this script, it did not take them long to completely change it. Through the work of a megalomaniac director (junior, Hananiah Wiggins), his assistant (senior, Kelly Sullivan) and a ghost writer (senior, Elliot Ihm) the script quickly begins to transform. Suddenly the mother and daughter are replaced by a celebutant and her B.F.F.s, and a cabin in the woods is replaced by a summer camp on a lake. There is no longer any reconnecting, there is only disconnecting, as the zombies start to rip the limbs off the unsuspecting teens.
The cast includes a Hollywood celebutant, who is only famous for being famous (senior, Lauren Partch), a horror movie veteran who takes her job very seriously (senior, Amanda Cox), a washed up European actress taking any work she can get (senior, Karen Lehan) and a movie newcomer, who is too wide eyed to realize how bad things are around her (Hanah Hepler).
The cast is rounded out by two beau hunks (seniors, Craig Lane and Jake Willrett), the money-hungry producers of the film (Renee Larson, Gary Flowers, Emily Stratton and Grace Schaffer), and, of course, more zombies than you can shake a stick at.
What happens when someone sees the script, into which she has poured her heart and soul, transform into a slasher zombie flick? Well, let’s just say there may be a few more dead bodies than the director originally planned on.
The play is a hilarious send-up of the horror-film genre, and we see just how far people can be pushed before they reach their boiling points. The show serves as an introduction to the Halloween season with performances on Thursday and Friday. Curtain raises at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and children.
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