On Friday December 9th, 2016, The Springbrook drama club held the premiere for their fall play, “Witness for the Prosecution.” The auditorium was packed, the crowd was active and the show received a tremendous amount of positive feedback. With a new director and a new direction, anything could have happened. But, thanks to all the hard work and hours put into the production, the show was a major success. “Witness for the Prosecution” is a courtroom drama written by the playwright, Agatha Christie.

The plot follows the story of the murder of Ms. Emily French. Leonard Vole is charged with the murder and goes to Sir Wilfrid Robarts to defend his case in court, while the prosecutor, Mr. Myers, takes them on. The production had taken a stylistic turn as well. Witness for the prosecution originally contained mostly elements of film noir.

However, The crew decided to change that up by going for a steampunk theme. “…Era where all technology is powered by steam and gears. It’s correlated with the victorian era with a futuristic twist,” said Stephen Brown, the stage left floor manager. According to Stephen Brown and most crew members, it most definitely matched well with the show.

The play starred an ensemble cast of Gary Perry III as Leonard Vole, Nahom Nega as Sir Wilfrid Robarts, Kai Phillips as Mr. Myers and many more. After Ms. D’Orazio, the former director, returned to her home of Pittsburgh due to personal reasons, Mr. Joe Bissex stepped up to take her place.

Mr. Bissex is an English teacher at the Heights, a private school in Potomac, Maryland. He’s really grown into our drama traditions and the cast and crew tend to love him.

“I feel Mr. Bissex was a great director. He kinda swooped in and picked up this program before it crashed. He rekindled our actors to act,” Stephen Brown said.

However, there was a good amount of doubt in the beginning. “I thought it would be a mess…” said Bernadette Palma, who played the court’s usher, “…but we pulled through at the last minute somehow. I’m just really glad the way it went.”

“I think Mr. Bissex was a really good director. I think one of the reasons kids had trouble in the beginning was because they didn’t really know him and he was little intimidating in the beginning. But overall he was a great director and a really great guy,” Caleb Boyd, who played the warder, said.

“Of course we can’t forget about Kat,” Stephen Brown said, “Kat is like a mom to us, she’s always one step ahead and is always taking care of us at the same time.”

Kat Pong is the drama club’s crew director. She has been involved with all the Springbrook productions since the drama revival that started out with Grease in 2013. Kat, being a Springbrook alumni, has a deep connection to the shows.

“We really wouldn’t have the program without her, for she’s the heart of it all… she’s the one who makes sure every single show comes to life,” said Laura Cardona, who was in charge of costumes.

After the successful premiere, everyone involved in the production felt a sense of relief. As the curtains closed, they received extreme applause.

When looking back at it all, Stephen Brown said, “All in all, I felt it went pretty smoothly. There were a couple of bumps here and there, but I think it went pretty well. It was definitely our most challenging production.”

When asked about the future of the drama program, Brown was sure that they are now in good hands and that he isn’t too worried. Only time will tell,but for now, the case is closed.