The North theater department puts on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
This year the North theater department has the opportunity to put on a new play. The rights for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time recently became available for amateur performance and the director of the show here at North, Julie Hult, decided she wanted to put on this show right away. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is different than many of the plays that the North drama department produces. The show will run April fifth through the seventh.
“We have never undertaken something with this type of digital storytelling. We’ve never taken on anything with this level of acting. Well, maybe we have; I think we have. This is just a different place we are going with some physical things and some character studies that are unique” Hult said.
“Curious Incident” is going to have many digital projections on the walls in the auditorium to help tell the story through the main character Christopher’s eyes. Freshman Jaime Garcia is playing Christopher.
“He’s just kind of quirky and sees the world through a very literal sense and I really like that about him” Garcia said.
Christopher’s ability to see the world differently than the people around him allow him to solve a mystery as well as allow him to find out many other important things about his life that others might want to keep hidden from him.
“In the main character of Christopher, while it’s never mentioned specifically in the script that he is autistic he definitely has a sensory processing issue that is becoming more and more common in our students today and so understanding how his special gifts can contribute to, in this case solving this mystery when no one around him thinks he can and showing that he has exceptional talents I think that’s a message that we need to hear as people, and so that’s another reason why we chose to tell this story” Hult said.
“I think that’s a message that we need to hear as people” Hult said.
Since the play is telling Christopher’s story through Christopher’s point of view, the show is made to mimic what it is like to have a sensory processing issue.
“It seems like the most difficult part of this is going to be the technical requirements and because this play is about a person with sensory processing issues we’re choosing to tell this story in a way that overwhelms the senses of the audience. So sounds that people aren’t used to hearing, pictures that people are not used to seeing, words that people aren’t used to hearing at all and the story has no set separate scenes. Everything runs together and is all in one time and place which is a strange way to tell a story so I think it’s a very uncomfortable show to watch, as far as an audience member goes in that you’re having to process the story on so many different levels, which I think is probably how it feels to be autistic and not take in any information differently than people who would be considered neurotypical. So, I think it’s going to be an interesting experience for the audience” Hult said.
Senior Paxton Rush also will also be playing a lead role in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and he is also enthusiastic about how unique this show is.
“I think it’s a really creative show. There are a lot of neat things that it does that are really cool as an actor to look on and as a theater fan. It has a really in depth plot that has a lot of twists and turns that I like and the characters are all very good” Rush said.
