Tri-County Students Perform Medical Comedy

THORNBURG – On Nov. 8, Tri-County students performed the play “Which Doctor?” The play starred Michael VerPloeg as Ben, a teacher who stays in the hospital while a piece of his intestines is removed. The play’s very large cast included Jada Shipley, Lia Hstings, Ryann Schroeder, Hailey Brackelsberg, Ava Brackelsberg, Reagan Molyneux, Ayla Hall, Jayden Smith, Natalie Smith, Lilliann Randall, Nathan McDonald, Aaliyah Cooper, Karley Moore, Gracen MacCready, Aubrey Zittergruen, Sienna Molyneux, Emery Hall, Alyssa Hadsell, Alexandria McCulloch, Imara Colbert, Grace Lindley, Landon McDonald, Drayvon Dennis, Gavin Smith and Sean McCulloch as various family members, doctors, nurses, and other hospital residents Ben encounters during his stay.

“Which Doctor,” like more than a dozen Tri-County plays performed in recent years, was written by Director Vince Hrasky. “It stems mostly from my policy of ‘any kid who wants in the play gets to be in the play,’ and when you buy plays, or use plays, often times there aren’t enough characters for what you need, and so you end up having a kid being Tree #3 to squeeze them in,” said Hrasky, when asked why he writes his own plays. “So this way, I write the play mostly during the summer, then when the kids show up and we try out, everybody gets something, and I try to get it so every kid has a laugh or does something fun. The kids will say I write parts for them. I don’t write entire parts for them, but I do add in lines that fit their personalities, maybe a little bit. The other thing is, I know what my stage looks like. I know what I have for things, for assets, so I can write to my stage, as opposed to the Wizard of Oz where I have to have the sugar plum fairies and all these different sets and things. This one, the entire one takes place in the patient’s room at the hospital, so one set, easy enough.”

Hrasky explained that this play was loosely based on experiences he had last winter, where he spent time in the hospital following a major intestinal surgery. “This one’s a little more personal than other ones have been,” said the director. “I’m going to be honest with you, most of these other ones are just based on silly ideas that I had, or you know things like that. This one is a little closer to home. That’s a little different.”

“I think that just recognizing that this play isn’t just here for laughs and giggles. It also has some serious components in it,” said Reagan Molyneux, who played the head surgeon in the play. “So you have to know when it’s time to be serious and when it’s time to have fun.”

“When we were younger, we just watched them all (the plays), and we just thought it was super cool, so we decided to do it once we got in high school, and it’s just been a lot of fun,” said Alaya Cooper, who has been doing plays with Hrasky for four years.

“There’s a couple (of seniors) that have been in plays all four years. This is their fourth year. Then I also have a couple seniors that this is their first time this year coming out, and then some in between there...Lotta first time kids this year. So, 27 in the cast, and I would say probably close to half are first time in a play,” said Hrasky.

“It’s a lot of fun, but it can be stressful, because we had a lot more people come out than we thought we were gonna have at the beginning, so then it was a delay of getting the script actually ready to practice,” said Natalie Smith, who played one of the doctors.

“I would say probably the hardest part is the fact that we’re kinda split into two, because of kids that are in sports and kids that are not in sports, just to make sure that everyone can get time in to practice, so that’s probably hard,” said Lilliann Randall, who played another doctor.

“In the play, there’s like one scene that has four pages, so each person has a lot of lines in the play. You have to remember all your lines and mostly your cues, so there’s a lot to go on, you gotta get costumes and move the stage around. It’s a lot to go on during the play,” said Aaliyah Cooper, who plays a doctor.

“For me, it’s just a lot like playing a sport. You’re going to have issues with people not showing up. Certain people can’t do their job, but at the end of the day, everyone cares about each other, and everything’s been going well so far,” said Jaden Smith, who played a doctor.

“I love the whole thing but, really, I just love that, during practice, everyone’s just laughing and having fun,” said Jada Shipley, who played Ben’s wife Jennifer.