With Monsignor Edward Pace High School’s Drama program marking its fifteenth production under the guidance of Cristina Pla-Guzman, lead teacher for the Academy for Visual and Performing Arts-Theatre Program, just what separates this production from its past ones?
It’s not simply the heinous story of the dead coming back to life in pursuit of human brains that should entice you to watch the show; it’s the themes that surround it. Perhaps the most psychological show ever put on by Pace Drama, Night of the Living Dead explores the effects of fear on the human psyche.
How does such a traumatic event, that compels the individual to seek survival above anything else, weigh on a person’s shoulders? What kind of desperation is produced when fear is applied to each distinct human being? The beauty is that the answers to these questions are different from person to person.
The influence fear holds on us is a daily struggle society faces, making it a relatable story. It’s the most universal emotion felt across civilizations, besides love. While the play’s events make it one of the most unfathomable stories ever told, the human struggle faced is not. Ironically, it’s what makes it one of the most human stories, Pace Drama has ever told.
But the play's distinction isn't all just Socrates and Aristotle talk; it's one that demands an experience to be felt. It's a show that calls for the most immersion possible. This is a difficult challenge in our day and age, as we more so greatly depend on films, television, and video games, to completely launch us into another world. The problem with these forms of media however, is we know from the start that it cannot be our true reality.
This is where theatre has the advantage. The Drama program has the opportunity to present a world the audience can touch. A world that can push back, something a flat screen could never achieve. This allows full immersion and in doing so, those watching can truly believe a worldwide zombie outbreak just happened in the middle of a school cafeteria.
Night of the Living Dead isn’t a flat line show, but one that is a living and breathing ecosystem of audience interaction, suspension of disbelief, and a gut-wrenching story that nails the coffin shut on any doubts that what the audience is witnessing is anything less than human truth.
Night of the Living Dead showings will hit Spartan Boulevard October 18 – 30. Pre-sale tickets are on sale now for $12 and will be sold by all members of the Drama Club. Tickets at the door are priced at $15. For more information contact Pace Senior High at 305-623-7223.