By Bonnie Adams, Managing Editor
Photo/submitted
Northborough – With its resounding win over rival Westborough High School on Thanksgiving Day, the Algonquin Regional High School (ARHS) football team finished its best season since 1987.
Now, approximately 10 members of the team will be facing a different kind of challenge in front of a different type of audience. The players are also members of the cast of the school’s production of “Good News,” which will be presented Thursday, Dec. 3 through Saturday, Dec. 5 at ARHS.
Good News is a musical set in the Roaring Twenties at Tait College, where football star Tom Marlowe falls in love with studious Connie Lane, who is tutoring him so he can pass astronomy and be eligible to play in the big game.
Many of the production’s talented cast has acted in plays and other theatrical events since they were young children. But for most of the football players, this is their first time in front of an audience.
Tom Alera, the show’s director, said the players, who are playing their 1920s college counterparts, add a “reality” to the show. But it is also a way to integrate different groups of kids, who might never get this type of opportunity, into a show.
“We did this before in 2013 when we had baseball players in the play ‘Damn Yankees,’” he noted.
For Ryan Barry, who is the ARHS quarterback, being a cast member for Good News gives him a chance to try “something out of my comfort zone.”
“I had taken an improv class before,” he said, “and thought that was fun. When my [athletic director] suggested that I try this, I thought it would a good thing to do.”
Another football player, Charles Murray, said he was a bit hesitant at first. Singing and dancing in front of a theatrical audience instead of playing in front of a football crowd did make him a bit nervous, he noted.
“But Mr. Alera really makes it fun,” he said. “And this is a great group – we have all really bonded.”
Although the play’s main story line is the relationship between Marlowe and Lane, it also has another important element, according to Sarah Milnamow, who plays Connie.
“It is set in the 1920s which was really a time of change for women,” she said. “Women started becoming more liberal and challenging social mores. So that’s really interesting and fun for me.”
The addition of the team’s football players to the cast added an “energy and positive dynamic,” she said.
“Mr. Alera’s goal is to integrate athletes, not just from the football team, but from all sports, into the plays,” she added. “It really helps everyone to get to know others better, especially those kids who you might not get a chance to really ever know that well. Now, we don’t think of them as jocks – we think of them as just good kids and just like us.”
Good News will be presented at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3, Friday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 5. Tickets are $10 at the door. ARHS is located at 79 Bartlett St
