MLHS thespians’ run of ‘Salt & Pepper’ has final curtain
THE CAST AND crew of Mountain Lake Public High School’s (MLHS) one-act play – Salt & Pepper. Front, from left, Isaac Grev (Letter), Ethan Klassen (Letter), Eli Karschnik (Letter), Sam Grev (Grandpa Holcomb, Hannah’s father and Andy and Salt’s grandfather), Regan Syverson (Salt) and Jae Faber (Pepper). Back, from left, Olivia Klassen (Letter), Kayla Vonk (Sound and Trumpet for Taps), Amy Bartsch (Letter), Jareya Harder (Lights), Liana Blomgren (Hannah) and David Hall (Andy). Not pictured are Directors Julie Brugman and Crystal Fast.
Mountain Lake Public High School (MLHS) thespians ended the run of their one-act play, Salt & Pepper, at the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) Section 2A competition, held today (Saturday, February 4) at LeSueur-Henderson Public School.
The MLHS production was awarded third following a tie-breaker for second. The runner-up play was presented to Belle Plaine with the play, Radium Cure for the Broken-Hearted.
Winning the contest, and advancing to the state festival next week, was the one-act play presented by Mankato Loyola, Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play. The MSHSL’s State One-Act Play Festival will be held in the O’Shaughnessy Auditorium on the campus of the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul. The “AA” schools perform on Thursday, February 9, and the “A” plays on Friday, February 10.
Salt & Pepper had earlier placed first in the Sub-Section 5A contest held last Saturday, January 28 at Mountain Lake Public School.
The MLHS play, Salt & Pepper, by José Cruz González, explores family, friendship and illiteracy.
Salt’s grandfather can’t read or write. He’s ashamed to tell anyone – and his silence has had a devastating effect on the entire family.
Salt, himself, can barely read. Pepper, his new friend, reads voraciously. Together they discover a past, the secrets of which are revealed in an old box of mysterious postcards.
Illiteracy and the high price it exacts on those who can’t read, as well as their loved ones is the play’s theme.
Salt & Pepper is a gently provocative play about aging with grace, courage and humor.
Cast
+ Grandpa Holcomb (Hannah’s father and Andy and Salt’s grandfather) – Sam Grev.
+ Hannah – Liana Blomgren.
+ Salt – Regan Syverson.
+ Pepper – Jae Faber.
+ Andy – David Hall.
+ Letter – Amy Bartsch.
+ Letter – Eli Karschnik.
+ Letter – Ethan Klassen.
+ Letter – Isaac Grev.
+ Letter – Olivia Klassen.
Crew
+ Lights – Jareya Harder.
+ Sound and Trumpet for Taps – Kayla Vonk.
Directors
+ Julie Brugman and Crystal Fast.
GRANDPA HOLCOMB (SAM Grev), holds the lantern up high in order to illuminate the yard as he seeks to find his daughter, Hannah. However, the search comes only from his memory. Hannah left home (and her two sons, Andy and Salt) long ago in order to chase her dreams, and has since died.
HANNAH (LIANA BLOMGREN), surrounded by her dreams, tries to make her father realize what the importance of her search was all about.
BIG BROTHER, ANDY (David Hall) right, mixes up colored pancakes while answering the questions being asked by his younger brother, Salt (Regan Syverson), left, about their momma.
GRANDPA HOLCOMB (SAM Grev), left, attempts to connect with his grandson, Salt (Regan Syverson), right, by letting him skip school for the day.
ANDY (DAVID HALL), center, confronts his grandfather, Grandpa Holcomb (Sam Grev), left, about his failure to pay the bills that have come in the mail. At right, Salt (Regan Syverson) does his own arithmetic, figuring up what his grandpa owes in total from the bills.
FED UP WITH his grandpa (and his secrets) Andy (David Hall), right, prepares to leave home. As he goes, he attempts to both comfort – and give advice – to his little brother, Salt (Regan Syverson), left.
“HUSH-A-BYE. Don’t you cry, oh my pretty little baby . . .” sings Hannah (Liana Blomgren) to her young sons – one now grown into manhood.
ANDY (DAVID HALL) writes a letter to his brother, Salt, telling him that he has joined the United States Army.
IN “HIS SPOT” on a bridge over a river, Salt (Regan Syverson) tries to put the letters written in his brother’s (Andy’s) note into words.
BACK AT HOME, helping his Grandpa Holcomb (Sam Grev), right, with the bills, Salt (Regan Syverson), left, comes to the dramatic realization that his grandfather can’t read.
WITH HELP FROM his new special friend, Pepper (Jae Faber), right, Salt (Regan Syverson), left, writes a return letter to his brother, Andy – and learns his letters and how they are put together to make words.
WITH SALT (REGAN Syverson), right, making great progress in learning to read, he shares another letter from his brother, Andy, with Pepper (Jae Faber), left.
DISCONSOLATE OVER THE fact that he cannot read, Grandpa Holcomb (Sam Grev), left, stresses to Salt (Regan Syverson), right, how important it is to go to school to be able to learn how to read.
GRANDPA HOLCOMB (Sam Grev) rifles through all the post cards (that he keeps in a special wooden box) Hannah had sent home.
PEPPER (JAE FABER), left, and Salt (Regan Syverson), right, discover Salt’s grandfather’s box of “memories” and Salt learns that everything his grandpa had told him about his mother – including that she had sung at the Grand Ole Opry – were not true.
HANNAH (LIANA BLOMGREN), in her true life far away from home, pretends to receive accolades for her performance – as she mops the floor.
SALT (REGAN SYVERSON), center, reads a telegram to his Grandpa Holcomb (Sam Grev), right, and his good friend, Pepper (Jae Faber), left that . . .
. . . ANDY (DAVID HALL) had been killed in battle in Korea.
NOW, HAVING LOST a daughter – and a grandson – Grandpa Holcomb (Sam Grev), center, decides that it is time to stop pretending and learn to read, so as not to drive his other grandson, Salt (Regan Syverson), left, away. At right is Pepper (Jae Faber), also eager to help the old man learn his letters. As Grandpa Holcomb struggles with the letters and words on a post card, Salt and Pepper lead him in reading the word, “D-a-d-d-y.” Seeing that term of endearment on the note, Grandpa Holcomb realizes that his daughter, Hannah, still had her home – and him – in her heart.
FROM THAT POINT on, Grandpa Holcomb works to decipher the words on all of the post cards from his daughter, Hannah (Liana Blomgren), left and in the letters from his grandson, Andy (David Hall), right, and the thoughts in them draw him closer to them, even in their absence.
THE CAST AND crew of Mountain Lake Public High School’s (MLHS) one-act play – Salt & Pepper. Front, from left, Isaac Grev (Letter), Ethan Klassen (Letter), Eli Karschnik (Letter), Sam Grev (Grandpa Holcomb, Hannah’s father and Andy and Salt’s grandfather), Regan Syverson (Salt) and Jae Faber (Pepper). Back, from left, Olivia Klassen (Letter), Kayla Vonk (Sound and Trumpet for Taps), Amy Bartsch (Letter), Jareya Harder (Lights), Liana Blomgren (Hannah) and David Hall (Andy). Not pictured are Directors Julie Brugman and Crystal Fast.
