“Our Town” is a three-act play that is set in the early 1900s and takes place in a small town in New England that CHS students and teachers gave their own rendition of. The play follows the main characters, Emily and George as their relationship evolves over several years from falling in love to marriage and death. The story was told in three acts: act one shows their daily lives, act two: love and marriage, and act three: death.

     The play is unique not only for its storyline, but for the actors involved. Since the play showcases mainly adults, CHS teachers such as Pettibone, Webinar and many more actually played the majority of the parts. Director of the play and CHS Theatre Department, Krista Elhai, has found that the difference between directing students versus teachers has been rather interesting.

“It’s been fun to work with the teachers in a different way, but the students are typically more experienced, as most teachers haven’t acted before,” Elhai said

Though most roles are held by teachers, many students are still heavily involved in the process. Students flipped the traditional student teacher dynamic by helping guide the teachers through the acting process by showing them the ropes.

Another unique aspect of the play is its minimalist onstage set. The play is written in a way that it is meant to be pantomime, but with sound effects that will indicate what is happening. On top of this, projections were used during the performance to get the feel of the set instilled without using props. The projections were of historical landmarks of Claremont in the same time period. Whenever certain things were mentioned during the play such as a mountain, Mt. Baldy or other places in Claremont were depicted depending on the situation.   

All proceeds to the plays went to CLASP (Claremont After School Programs), Sustainable Claremont’s School Garden Program. ARTstART, and CFA’s EPIC WIN Program. The play successfully raised money for these programs and entertained many.