Play director and theatre teacher Jason Tamborini produced the Heathers school play despite its R rating.
The original Heathers is an R rated movie from 1988 about life in high school. The film discusses how relationships work and it tackled adult themes.Tamborini worked with Principal Jeff Litz and used the high school version of Heathers to produce the play. Tamborini gave the audience the script and said this version of heathers gave the audience freedom of imagination, allowing the audience to see the adult themes.
“The high school edition gets rid of the [adult content], but it doesn’t take away from the story,” Tamborini said. “We’re not staging physical representation of [the adult themes].”
Tamborini has been the theatre producer for six years, producing plays that he wants to tackle, and communicating a message even if the play is rated R.
“I don’t shy away from plays and musicals that have edgy content,” Tamborini said.
Tamborini wanted to tackle adult issues students face in their day to day life. The director’s production of Heathers showed Tamborini’s message.
“[Students] deal with this kind of content in their personal lives,” Tamborini said. “Identity issues, thoughts and feelings of depression and personal value and worth are left undiscussed.”
The difficult topics also carry over to the play’s characters. Senior Sloane Kelly played the role of Martha Dunstock in the play, a character who deals with criticisms about her weight.
“Some scenes where my character was bullied were hard to perform,” Kelly said. “No one ever wants to see or experience that behavior.”
Kelly said the cast offered support for her character because of the hard to perform scenes in the backstage and when the play ended. An apology would be expected because of how the other actor’s characters treated Kelly’s character, however the cast proved otherwise.
“There was never any need for apologies,” Kelly said. “The cast is a family, and we always will be.”
