The Charger Issue 1 | Page 13

ARTS

By Ross Berry and Alex Yang

Ms. Bower and her actors are ready to show PDS what they're made of.

Ms. Caroline Bower commented on how she is fitting in just fine here during her second year at Providence Day School thanks to all the support from the students, performing arts, parents, and administration .

Due to her family often moving, she felt that the theater was a safe haven while she was growing up. This led to her love and passion for the performing arts which can still be seen today with her encouraging tone as she speaks about it.

Ms. Bower continued to pursue a life in the performing arts by attending college for musical theater then later becoming a professional actor in New York where she was granted the opportunity to tour around the country with the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She then moved to Charlotte to work with the Actors Theater of Charlotte, which is where she continues to work along with being the Providence Day performing arts director.

The upcoming play, "Eurydice," is a modern version of Orpheus and Eurydice. In the story, Orpheus's wife was tricked into going to the underworld, and Orpheus tries everything to bring her back. Senior in the play, Beatrice Keyser-Pollard, said, “With a small cast of only nine people, it's should be much easier to work together to make this show great."

The main factor of Ms. Bower deciding to produce "Eurydice" was due to her being unsure of the turnout for auditions, but she said the small group of actors are 100% dedicated to this play and because of this, she encourages everyone to go watch it.

Creating a play isn't the easiest thing in the world, sure once it gets going is easier, but that's not the case all the time. The main challenge is finding a way to match everyone's schedule, staying within the budget, the visuals, and how the set is going to look. Setting up for a play takes some true skill and patients for everything to fall into place, but Ms. Bower is completely capable of handling these demands.

"This is the first time in a while we've had a play that involves the upper school only. It provides a modern and classical base along with other technical things that hasn't been done at PD in a while".

US Theater:

Ready, set, play!

"With a small cast of only nine people, it's should be much easier to work together to make this show great." – Beatrice Keyzer-Pollard

The cast of "Eurydice" rehearses a scene.

Photo by Alex Yang