WHS Center Stage Opens Season With 'Very Relevant' Show

Westborough High School Center Stage’s season debut is “very obscure” but “very relevant to what’s going on in our world today,” Drama Director Anne Slotnick says.

“The Caucasian Chalk Circle” features “a lot about law and justice and power over others, and electing officials,” Slotnick said Wednesday.

“And it’s also a little bit dramatic at times than some of the work I’ve done. So, I thought it would be a good stretch for some of the students.”

The performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the high school auditorium. Tickets are $10.

The story follows Grusha, a kitchen maid who “happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time: during a riot in the city,” Slotnick said.

Grusha rescues an infant left behind and cares for it.

“Throughout the story, you see her really become this child’s mother,” Slotnick said.

 “And then you see sort of a simultaneous story of this judge character. And in the end, you see that judge decide the true motherhood of the baby. The biological mother comes back.”

The cast includes 24 students among 40 roles, she said.

Senior Alison Kerr plays Grusha.

“It’s a role than can be played a lot of different ways. The take that she’s put on it is very interesting. She’s a very sensitive character, and a character who fights for what is right and undergoes a lot,” Slotnick said.

“Alison sings, so we have a little bit of her singing as well. It’s written with songs, but it’s written with no music to go along with them.”

The play by Bertolt Brecht and translated by Eric Bentley is “a really wonderful experience watching a story come to life on stage. And a story that doesn’t outrightly make decisions  for you, but that asks the audience to really question what’s going on and question their own beliefs about it,” said Slotnick, who is in her third year leading Westborough High plays.