Taking Center Stage

Naomi ’24 loves all things writing.

“I have always enjoyed writing on my own, outside of school” says Naomi, who this year authored and performed a popular (and hilarious!) “Pre-Weekend Update” — an MHS-themed riff on the Saturday Night Live segment — during Community Meetings. “I love writing for classes. My Horizons sites involved writing. Scriptwriting always felt like this secretive other thing.”

No longer. In late May, Naomi treated the MHS community to two original, one-act plays, I Brought Garlic Bread and Wedding Night, which debuted in a packed Woods Theater.

“The night of the performances was the scariest and most rewarding thing I have ever done,” says Naomi. “I was so amazed by how excited people were to see them and by the talent of the rest of the cast. Everyone did an amazing job!”

The genesis for the project was an online playwriting workshop Naomi took last summer, inspired by her love of comedy and desire to learn how to write a script. By the end of the six-week course, she had written Wedding Night, in which two men are honest with one another, perhaps for the first time, on their wedding night.

It was Naomi’s first script, but that was just the start of her theatrical efforts. Last fall, she starred in the Fall Play, Sense and Sensibility, her first production with the MHS Theater Ensemble. During Spring Break, she wrote I Brought Garlic Bread, in which a routine dinner among friends falls apart.

To bring the plays to life, Naomi worked with Director of Theater and Dance Jenni Jordan “I could not have done without her,” she says. “There are just so many details and things to do to go from script to production, and Ms. Jordan helped with all of that.”

There were table reads, rounds of edits, auditions, and more table reads with the actors. These were followed by rehearsals, procuring props, designing sets, and planning every detail, right down to programs and post-show snacks.

I Brought Garlic Bread, which Naomi directed, starred Avah ’27, Myles ’27, and Sonia ’27. Ms. Jordan directed Wedding Night, which starred Naomi and Kyla ’24.

“What I appreciate most is how lucky I was to get to do this,” says Naomi, who will attend Massachusetts Bay Community College outside of Boston, where she plans to explore theater and comedy, pursue opportunities in writing and entertainment, and see what’s next for her on a bigger stage.

“I really enjoyed that I had the opportunity to write, act, do set design, everything, and see it through from idea to performance, and I’m thankful MHS provided that opportunity” she says. “Now what I am working for is to get to do it again.”