Monte Vista Students Create a Play in One Month

By Eric Palonsky

Four weeks. 

One task.

Write a full length creative work of mastery:  a play. 

It sounds like the most devilish nightmare, something dreamt up from the cynical mind of Tim Burton; yet the AP English Literature class at Monte Vista is tasked with this challenge. Given a list of required details - the number 12, Hercules, and Hades - we face a challenge even more difficult than the 12 trials of Hercules. The seemingly random creative seeds were planted as we set to work creating the beanstalk we have to climb in order to surmount the giant task that we've been assigned. At the helm, Mrs. Utchen, our teacher, is driving this monster to the finish line.

Minds racing so fast that you could smell skid marks of the brains hard at work piecing these ideas together. "Hercules and Hades, what can we do? Greek Life!" a student exclaimed as we looked forward to our upcoming college careers.

That's where we began to create our ideas: a fraternity gives its students trials - so Hercules should have to go through the rush and initiation trials of the fraternity.

We had our plot! We, however, did not have a title. We couldn't promote this show without a title! As literature students and enthusiasts, we chose a title that would give our fellow literature enthusiasts a laugh: Ode on a Grecian TurnUp; a title which not only alludes to the John Keats poem, "Ode on a Grecian Urn," but also gives a teaser to a TurnUp, crazy parties which fraternities put on - ones even Gatsby would be envious of.

Our play will be presented on Friday, June 7 starting at 7 p.m. and cost $5 each ticket. If you are interested in attending or have any questions feel free to email mvAPELit@gmail.com. 

We use our proceeds to purchase the next class books as souvenirs of their time in APE Lit. This year our class received the incredibly comedic play The Importance of Being Earnest from the past class. Any and all donations to our play are greatly appreciative.  We look forward to seeing you at Ode on a Grecian TurnUp!

Eric Palonsky is a student at Monte Vista High.