The Bear

Graduation 2022
May 19, 2022 WBHS Volume 25 Issue 6 900 W. Main St., West Branch, IA 52358

Death of a Doornail entertains Graduation

Ava Hazelwood & Ashlynne Nash
Staff Writers
Death of a Doornail, the first
spring play since 2019, was sched-
uled for three performances in the
brand new auditorium.
On Friday, April 29, grades
3-8 had the chance to watch the first
performance. The next two perform-
ances were open to the public: Sat-
urday at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00
p.m.
Sophomore Claire Jarrett
said, “I went to both the perform-
ances and thought they were both
very good! I thought the cast did an
outstanding job. The play, intermis-
sion, set, and crew all went smoothly
and ran very well. I enjoyed it very
much.”
Death of a Doornail is a
wacky, murder mystery production
that got the audience laughing. The
audience was also able to interact
with the characters. In one scene,
they were asked to vote on who they
thought was the murderer.
Diego Carillo, sophomore
viewer said, “It was good. It had a
great amount of laughs. I lost it when
the ‘bloopers’ happened.”
Director Molly McCarthy
said, “The cast performed very well.
They knew their characters and had
fun with them.”
Trenton Schutte, sophomore
viewer, said, “I really liked Gavin
Hill’s and Oliver Palmer’s characters.
They played their parts perfectly.”
“I was very impressed with
the Sunday performance. The actors
were hilariously in character, and I
laughed a lot. The set was also amaz-
ing. You could see that a lot of time
and work went into its construction,”
said Karina Krall, audience member.
As for the process of build-
ing the set, McCarthy said, “Getting
the set up was an ordeal. We had to
work in the industrial tech. room and
had very little space. We were two
weeks late getting to use the IT room
because of IT classes, and we were
delayed another two weeks getting on
stage due to construction items on the
stage.”
Oliver Palmer & Annie Bower
Takota Chandler, senior,
backstage manager, said, “Taking the
set down was kind of hard to do.
Some parts of the set were well built
and hard to take apart.” However,
taking down the sets, moving furni-
ture, and cleaning up the rest was
done remarkably well and quickly
with such a large number of people
helping after Sunday’s show.
When it comes to another
play next year, there aren’t many
plans yet, but McCarthy mentioned,
“I am hoping next year that we get
the stage when we are supposed to
get it. I will be reading plays this
summer to decide what I will be di-
recting. I will take into account
numbers...how many students might
try out!”
Actors stayed late every
night of “Hell Week,” which is the
week just prior to the performances;
they rehearsed sometimes as late as
midnight. The crew and tech. staff
stayed late as well for dress rehear-
sals.
Each crew or tech. person
had their own job important to the
show, such as hair and makeup, ush-
ering, preparing refreshments for the
intermission, pulling the curtain, or
performing as backstage managers.
So, how did the actors feel
about their perfromances?
Lainee Edwards, senior actor
(Candace Bambay), said, “My favor-
ite scene is probably the one with me
and Gavin Hills [Savator Carbone]
where we tap dance. This was my
first one [play], and it was so much
better than I would have expected! I
wish I would have tried out in pre-
vious years.”
Ellie Walsh, sophomore actor
(Abigail Doornale), said, “It was so
scary, but the cast had my back and
covered it up really well. It was a
really uncomfortable situation that I
put myself in when I auditioned for it
[the play], but I did really well, and I
forced myself to do it and kept going,
and I finally did it, got through it, and
I didn't die, so that's good. It was
scary and way out of my comfort
zone.”
Karley Staker
& Oliver Palmer
CAST
Narrator – MADDIE REED
& Understudy - Olivia Naber
Audience Guy – JOE HEITHOFF
Audience Guy’s Wife – MADDEY
HARTZ
Edward – OLIVER PALMER
Pricilla – ANNIE BOWER
& Understudy – Kayla Garrett
Candace Bambay- LAINEE EDWARDS
& Understudy - Miley Shields
Mortimer- BEN SHORTT
Mrs. Morganford-ANDEE ATKINS
Salvator Carbone-GAVIN HILLS
Abigail Doornale-ELLIE WALSH
Inspector Burkowski-JONAH BAYLOR
Albert Doornale–EVAN STRIEGEL
Director - Molly McCarthy
Assistant Director - Aimee Wright
Set Designers - Hailey Griffin & McCar-
thy
Lighting Designer - Mariah Hult
Poster Designers - Alexis McCann &
Jade Gongora
Set Dressing - McCarthy, Griffin,
Wright, & Diane Elliott
Rehearsal Assistants - Gongora & Redi
Boelk
Costume & Prop Mistress - Elliott
Stage Manager - Hult
Backstage Managers - Takoda Chandler
& Gongora
Set-Up Crew - Kya Montgomery, Caleb
Pedersen, Maryam Martin, & Clara
Lopez Pons
Curtain - Pedersen
Wall Repair/Painting Crew (Tech.
Theatre class) - Hope Kruse, Lopez
Pons, Gongora, Montgomery, Ellie
Walsh, Diego Carillo, Chandler, Logan
Graves, Ava Hazelwood, Martin, Ped-
ersen
Detail Painters - Gongora, Chandler,
Hazelwood, Griffin
Special Project Artists - Griffin & Hult
Hair & Makeup - Karley Staker, Hilda
Hernandez, Madison Hovancik, Gabby
Rushton, Kaylee Kettler, Hazelwood
Ushers - Carillo, Matin, Katey Noble,
Claire Jarrett, Kruse, Lu Guetzko
Maddie Reed
Info.
Graduation will be held
in the new HS gym on Sunday,
May 29 at 2:00 p.m. Doors will
open at 1:15. Seniors should be at
the HS by 1:30. Girls are to meet
in Rex Connor’s room, and boys
should go to Karina Krall’s room.
Seniors are reminded to dress ap-
propriately as this is a formal cer-
emony.
Seating is not reserved,
but family and friends are asked to
sit in the bleachers. The seniors
will be seated on the court and sur-
rounded by faculty members. The
stage will be set up on the gym
floor.
There will be four junior
ushers: Carver Boelk, Evan Strie-
gel, Bailey Walker, and Anna Wa-
terman. The senior speakers will
be JJ Ellyson, Joseph Heithoff and
Anne Bower. Joe Photo will be the
professional photographer taking
pics of the diploma reception as in
previous years.
Senior Info.
*Senior’s Last Day & Check Out -
Fri., May 20 from 8:00-9:00 a.m.
(turn in laptops and checkout
sheets to Misti Donovan)
*Senior Breakfast - Fri., May 20
from 9:00-9:30 a.m. in the activity
commons
*Graduation rehearsal - Fri., May
20 at 10:00 a.m.
*Hoover Elementary Walk-
Through - Thurs., May 26 at 2:00
p.m. (Wear cap/gown and meet
outside the Hoover Gym before
2:00 p.m.)
Annie Bower
& Ellie Walsh

Maddey Hartz & Jonah Baylor &

Joseph Heithoff Lainee Edwards Gavin Hills

Death of a Doornail Cast. Front Row: AnDee Atkins, Annie Bower, Maddey Everyone discovers that “Uncle Albert’ is dead. (Ben Shortt, Lainee Edwards,
Hartz, Joe Heithoff, Oliver Palmer. Back Row: Ben Shortt, Gavin Hills, Kayla Evan Striegel, Kayla Garrett, Oliver Palmer.) Photo by Kaylee Kettler.
Garrett, Lainee Edwards, Evan Striegel, Ellie Walsh, Jonah Baylor, Olivia
Naber, Maddie Reed. Photo by Karina Krall.
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