With two weeks to go until opening night of “The Miss Firecracker Contest,” the student cast at Lake Forest High School has their lines memorized and their Mississippi accents more or less figured out.
Director Joe Pulio is working with the actors on movements while pieces of the set are carried in.
If there is a remaining challenge to staging this play, it’s how to keep up the pace.
Take the character of Carnelle, played by 16-year-old Baily Lawrence.
“Carnelle is definitely high-energy,” Lawrence said during a recent rehearsal break. “Carnelle says and does anything she wants in that second. She doesn’t have a filter. At the end of Act 1, I was hyperventilating. It takes so much physical energy to play her.”
Then there is character of Elain, a well-heeled southern belle played by Gracie Stockton, 16.
“She maintains this nice demeanor,” Stockton said. “Yet under the surface she’s … just going to hit you. It’s hard as a regular person to maintain the balance between going off the deep end and maintaining control. And those heels are hard to wear.”
The material in general is high energy, the play’s director said.
“It’s a pretty fast-paced play,” Pulio said. “Keeping [the actors’] level of energy up is tough stuff.”
“The Miss Firecracker Contest” was written by Beth Henley. In 1989, a movie was made from the play, starring Holly Hunter.
The story revolves around a beauty pageant – the Miss Firecracker contest of the title – that takes place in a small Mississippi town every July 4. Carnelle’s aunt, who raised her, has just died and her cousins have arrived to take over the aunt’s house. Carnelle will leave town but she wants to go out in a blaze of glory by winning the contest.
Meanwhile, her cousins have their own challenges. Elain has just left her husband while Delmount has just been released from a mental institution.
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“He has a lot of feuds with a lot of people in the play,” said Bradley Berklich, 15, who plays Delmount. “Now he’s back, he’s on edge and he’s really mad at everybody. I have to be on edge the whole time. That’s hard for me.”
Beyond the maintaining the energy level, Pulio said another challenge is having high school students play adult roles.
“It’s more of a grown-up theme,” Pulio said. “Getting the kids to understand the connections in the play. If you just take it on the surface, you’re missing the message.”
“The Miss Firecracker Contest” will be performed 7 p.m. on Feb. 4, 5 and 6 at Lake Forest High School, 1285 N. McKinley Road. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for students and seniors. Tickets may be purchased online at lakeforestschools.org
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