Abigail Kuhns
This year’s junior class play, The Crucible, came to life at Stow-Munroe Falls high school. Director and set designer, Robert Putka, announced the junior class play, last year, and drama club has been preparing ever since.
Along with Putka, Tim Pokelsek assisted as the producer and Kyra Raymond-Smith and Josof Ruttig worked on the show as student directors.
Cast and crew auditioned and was determined back in Dec. and started rehearsal in Jan. After two months, the cast and crew was geared up and ready to perform for the four showings.
Lead roles this year included juniors Libby Tritten as Abigail Williams, Dallas Mapes as John Proctor and Ocean Noland as Mary Warren.
“I think we had a lot of success and I am proud of our performances because we all worked really hard, and we came a long way from our first rehearsal,” Tritten said.
The Crucible was written in the 1950’s by Arthur Miller but was set to take place in 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, during the Puritan era.
Miller wrote the play during times of questionable communism in court. He wrote it to portray the fact that the same events happening had already happened hundreds of years ago during the “Salem Witch Trials” in hopes to stop it from happening again.
Over the course of the play nearly one hundred people in the town had been accused of witchcraft and there was no way to prove who actually was a witch. The event started when a group of teenage girls, lead by Abigail Williams, were caught dancing in the woods and the daughter of the town’s reverend was in a Coma. The girls figured out a way to get out of trouble and and the result was lying and putting innocent people in jail and innocent people being hanged. Other townspeople went to court and were just trying to make it all stop, but things did not really go as planned.
“My favorite part of all of it was meeting new people and making new friends in the cast and crew. During the first performance I was nervous but after it went so well, I was no longer nervous because I had so much trust in myself and the cast and crew and knew we could all do it,” Tritten noted.
Everyone in the audience could easily tell how much hard work and thought was put into the production from the costumes, to the set, to the actors, to the accents and most importantly to the emotion.
“I enjoyed watching because the acting was very good, and you could tell the cast and crew worked hard. My favorite part would have to be the conversation between John Proctor and Elizabeth because the acting was spectacular and the scene was interesting,” junior Charisma Carnes said.
The Crucible was filled with dramatic scenes along with cast members bringing some joy, passion, humor and remorse to the play.
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Sports Injuries
Lauren Rayman
Being injured and unable to participate in a sport greatly changes one’s perspective on that sport. Junior Mya Dietrich fractured her spine, which took her out of cheer for the summer before her sophomore year.
“I was doing a back tuck on a tumble track and instead of tucking, I stretched out my body and fell on my butt,” Dietrich said.
This put Dietrich out of cheer for over two months over the summer. While recovering, she also had to do physical therapy for a month and a half.
During this time that she was injured, the cheer team attended UCA cheer camp at the University of Akron. Being forced to sit out during those three days made Dietrich realize how much she loved being able to tumble and cheer.
“It made me realize how much I loved cheer and that I was taking advantage of being able to tumble and do things without any back pain or pain in general,” Dietrich said.
Her injury also made her realize how impatient she was. Because she was not allowed to do anything and had to sit out, she could not wait for classes at camp and practices to be over.
There were many bad things about fracturing her spine, including not being able to tumble, but one of the other worst things about it was everyone feeling sorry for her.
“The worst part was not being able to tumble because I hated doing nothing at practices. I also hated everyone being so worried about me because I felt like I was inconveniencing everyone. Lastly, there was no way to get rid of the pain except taking Advil. I was in pain when I was standing, sitting, or laying down. The only time it didn’t hurt was when I was walking,” Dietrich said.
Over a year later, Dietrich still has pain in her back that never goes away. This pain still affects her tumbling at practices and games.
When an athlete is forced to sit out of their sport, they realize a lot of things that they took for granted, which I know from experience. Like Dietrich, I have had back problems since freshman year and got a concussion last year during track season.
Freshman year after my back pain started I had an MRI done to rule out a stress fracture and spondylosis, which is a degenerative condition that affects the spinal disks. Once they results came back, they diagnosed my back pain as bad muscle strains.
I did physical therapy for about two months and was not allowed to tumble during this time. Like Dietrich, this made me realize that I was taking advantage of being able to tumble without pain and even in general since I could no longer do it.
This past football season my back pain got really bad again. I went back to the doctor, where they did an x-ray and were able to quickly realize what was causing my pain.
The x-ray showed that I had lost a normal lumbar curve in my spine, which cause my spine to appear flat from the side. Because I have to arch my back when I tumble, this cause a lot of pain for me because I was forcing my spine to move in a way that was no longer natural.
This also caused sacroiliac joint pain on either side of my spine. I had to go back to physical therapy for two more months. Although PT helped and I was discharged, I still struggle with this pain every single day.
I was not allowed to tumble when I was in PT. Once I was cleared to tumble and to this day, there are many things that I am not allowed to do, including simple skills like back and front walkovers and bridges.
Sophomore year I got a concussion that took me out of track for about a month. I had to do half days at school and I was not able to even go to practice and sit out because everything about it hurt my head.
My concussion changed my perspective on sports the most. With my back injuries during cheer, I was still allowed to go to practice and see what I was missing. This was not the case during track season.
I felt like I was missing out on so much during this time where I could not attend track practice. It also made me miss out on a lot training, which negatively impacted my season in the long run.
Although they hate being injured, many athletes, including myself, are thankful for their injuries in some weird way. They have made me realize how lucky I am to be able to do the things I enjoy and have taught me to not take advantage of them. These injuries have also made me enjoy my sports a lot more than I did before.
Glass- Review
Hannah Bartels
Back from the movie “Unbreakable,” Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson join James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy from the movie, “Split.” Bruce Willis plays as David Dunn and Samuel Jackson plays as Elijah Price (a.k.a. Mr. Glass). James McAvoy plays Kevin Wendell Crumb and Anya Taylor-Joy plays as Casey Cooke. Together, they join for the trilogy, “Glass.”
According to rottentomatoes.com, “Glass” has been given a 75% liked rating and an average rating of 3.9/5. The movie came into theaters on Friday, Jan. 18 and is 110 minutes long. “Glass” is rated PG-13 for some violence, thematic elements and language.
“Glass” begins with two of the three wanted criminals hiding out in the city. Kevin has commited several more kidnappings of tennage girls to sacrifice for one of his multiple personalities, infamously known as The Beast.
Meanwhile, Casey Cooke is starting over with a somewhat normal life while her uncle remains in prison. David is on a hunt for The Beast to stop the kidnappings but is recognized as a villain rather than a hero.
When The Beast and David go head to head, they are both captured by the police and are transferred to a mental institute with Mr. Glass. Dr. Ellie Staple is a travelling mental doctor and has three days to convince The Beast, David, and Mr. Glass that they are not the heroes they perceive themself as and she must stick to harsh tactics.
For one of her most difficult patients, she realizes that one person can heal them better than she can. In the end, many lives are lost and there are a few plot twists that take create a huge impact on the movie’s plot.
“Mr. Glass” is an exciting movie to watch but only because Kevin is in it and people like to see his other personality, The Beast. The other characters are rather dull in comparison to him. The movie also requires a pretty good knowledge on the plot of “Unbreakable” so it can be challenging to follow if you have not seen it.
In addition, “Mr. Glass” does not have much action either. For a very large portion, the characters are sitting in a contained room. The only real time you will see much action is in the last 30 minutes of the movie which even then, is not that great. And not to mention, the plot is not that exciting either.
The main attraction in the movie is really just the return of the characters. The plot and action are very boring but would be much worse without the characters. The rating given to this movie is very agreeable and suits the movie well.
In short, the movie may not be something to go and spend your money on but if you’re bored on a Friday night and have no plans, then it would be worth seeing. Otherwise, it may just be best to wait and see if it will be streamed onto Netflix or Hulu and see it then so you can save your money.
Thank u, Next- Review
Maria Leonino
Ariana Grande has pleased her fans once again with her latest album, “thank u, next” when it was released on Feb 8, 2019.
Grande released a chart topping album six months ago titled “sweetener”, but the latest album has topped the Billboard 200 charts for the last two weeks.
Three of her songs from her new album are ranked in the top three for Billboard 100, which has broken the record of “The Beatles” from fifty years ago.
“thank u, next” is a twelve track album containing songs of all different genres, themes and meanings. Some of the most recognized songs include “7 rings,” “thank u, next,” “imagine,” and “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.”
Multiple songs on the track are hinted at her relationships, more closely related to her ex fiancée, Pete Davidson and her late ex boyfriend, Mac Miller.
“ghostin” is a slow, sad love song that takes a closer look into why Grande and Davidson ended. She explains how she is upset over Miller, but promises Davidson they will overcome their hard times.
When Miller passed away of an overdose while Grande was engaged to Davidson, the death of Miller took a toll on Grande and Davidson’s relationship and they broke up. “imagine” is another song that symbolizes Miller as if they never broke up and were still living in a perfect world together.
Although Grande focuses on mainly Davidson and Miller, “thank u, next” is a song that recognizes all of her past loves. Grande thanks Big Sean, Ricky Alvarez, Miller and Davidson because they have all taught her a valuable lesson. Thanking them helped Grande get over each relationship and become a stronger, better version of herself.
Grande has had time to focus and reflect on herself, so songs such as “needy,” “in my head” and “NASA” are revolves around Grande saying she is needy, needs space and over thinks her relationships. “7 rings” is one of her most popular songs on the album, which also focuses on her work ethic for receiving what she wants.
The rest of the album includes “make up”, “bloodline”, “bad idea”, and “breakup with your girlfriend, i’m bored”. Lastly, “fake smile” is an underrated song talking about how Grande has struggled over the past few months and does not want to fake her smiles anymore.
Overall, Grande’s music has had huge successes over the years, but the “thank u, next” album has skyrocketed her career in many ways.
