Clarke Drama presents M*A*S*H April 9-10

M*A*S*H will be performed by Clarke Drama 7 p.m. April 9 and 10 at the Clarke auditorium. Reserved seating is $7 and tickets can be purchased at the high school office or at the door if any are left. General admission is $5 for adults and $4 for students. Masks are required as is social distancing between groups.

This is the third time that Director Don May has produced M*A*S*H for Clarke Drama. This play was also run in 2002 and 2013. Already having the set made it easier to prepare.

“This fall we had a bunch of guys involved in the musical that had never been on stage before and they were super excited saying, ‘I want to be in the spring play!’, so I was like ok if I’ve got all these guys I know I need 15 guys for M*A*S*H so now would be a good time to do it,” said May.

Auditions were held late January for this huge cast of 30 students.

M*A*S*H is a movie and an 11 season television show so for it to be a nearly two hour long high school play some aspects and details had to change or be excluded.

“A lot of the characters are the same but it’s not focused around anything from the show, kind of the movie though. It’s just kind of the life of the M*A*S*H unit,” said May.

To show some of the chaos of how that life would be scene changes will be done more how they are during musicals. The curtain will not close so audience members will get to see and hear some of the rush and experience the chaos of M*A*S*H life.

May had advised the cast and crew to watch some of the M*A*S*H episodes and many had already seen some and have made themselves aware of the series or movie to help build their character.

There will be loud sound effects of artillery and helicopters. Many uniforms and footlockers have been donated by community members.

Visit https://sites.google.com/clarke.k12.ia.us/clarke-drama-mash/home to watch Clarke Drama’s M*A*S*H trailer.