“Audiences will experience something unusual this weekend with the opening of Woodstock Union High School Yoh Theatre Players’ ‘Woven,’ a show that director Marcia Bender relates is a ‘convergence of patterns about connections.’
The artistic presentation is a choose-your-own play with a cast of nearly 20 characters who are the actual authors of how the story unfolds – an ambitious and exciting concept to the students involved.
‘It’s intense,’ said WUHS junior and Yoh master Alden Krawczyk who plays the drums and is part of a choral speaking group.
‘Woven’ will be performed at the YOH Theatre Auditorium on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 11-12 at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. The cast includes singers, dancers, drummers, weavers, and the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water with little distinction between them said Bender.
‘It’s a show in which the audience will experience a wave of music, words and movement that converge into one cohesive impression of the way patterns weave into our daily lives,’ said Bender.
The ambitious nature of the show – created and designed by Bender, retired Yoh Theatre director Harriet Worrell, and artist and art educator Murray Ngoima – includes traditional music in four-part harmony including South African and American songs with choreography by administrative assistant Andy Carpenter, the famed Speakchorus of Worrell, artwork designed and made by Ngoima, a three-foot crankie made by WUHS teacher Dave McFarlin and students, and paper cut-out art by WUHS teacher Nina Salvatore.
‘The cast forms a group that leads the audience through time from ancient culture with music from South Africa and words about Prometheus and fire to American culture with attention to peace and children learning from history to our own individual and collective culture,’ said Bender. ‘The players contribute lines about their own daily patterns and excerpts are spoken from essays written by students at our school.’”
Yoh Theatre 