Northview’s drama department presents its latest play, “Hammered”, after a year in COVID-19.

Manasa Premanand, Multimedia Editor, and Mekayla Upton, Staff Writer

After a year of no live productions due to COVID-19, Northview’s theatre department makes a comeback with its newest play, “Hammered”. The play is centered around Norse gods Thor and Loki, exploring their rivalry and fraternal bond as princes of Asgard. It was shown from Oct.14 to 16 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.

Preparation for the play began in early August with auditions. Compared to those of previous productions, the two-day audition process for “Hammered” was slightly different. Auditionees knew that they would be trying out for a role in a comedy, but were not given any further info on the play. Junior Andrew Amelchenko, who played Loki, described the nerve-wracking process. 

“I expected it [the audition process] to be the same as the other years, where there wouldn’t be that big of a crowd,” Amelchenko said. “So, I decided to go on the second day, but when I came there, the crowd was enormous.”

Amelchenko’s co-star, junior Aparna Shivkumar, who portrayed Thor, also notes the difference. 

“I think the audition was a lot more fun and exciting,” Shivkumar said. “We came in, we played improv games. We did lots of interactive things.”

Due to the large crowd, rather than acting out prepared monologues, participants formed a single-file line and had to tell a joke. 

“It went by extremely quickly, and what was so nerve-wracking about it was the fact that you couldn’t judge your acting ability against others, so you had absolutely zero clue if you had any chance to get any roles,” Amelchenko said. 

Compared to a year ago, the auditions had much more people, which Amelchenko attributes to a variety of reasons, the biggest of which is COVID-19. During quarantine, many students developed new interests that were reflected in the turnout for auditions.

“Through COVID, there’s that sense of people changing, coming out with who they really are,” Amelchenko said.  “I feel like that’s really heavy in helping a lot of people think ‘you know what, I want to try this thing, why don’t I just go and do it?’”

Performing a play during a pandemic has its struggles, and Amelchenko notes the differences between rehearsals for past plays versus his rehearsals for “Hammered”. This year, actors had to wear masks, resulting in a search for new ways to emote character expressions. Though acting with a mask poses difficulties, Amelchenko finds that when he gets into character, he is able to use his body language and tone of voice in order to properly emote.

“You need to really embody your character. When you go into rehearsal, you have to be your character,” Amelchenko said. “So, when I walk in I have to already be Loki - I have to act like Loki, think like Loki, and move like Loki.”

Preparation for the play was a joint effort from the entire cast and crew. While the actors focused on immersing themselves in their roles, the tech crew managed the technical production of the play. 

One main difference with this play was the social distancing factor, so the crew had to work in precautions especially catered to the pandemic. 

"So, we have barcodes that are for forms that we have to fill out every day for temperatures, different symptoms we wear masks and, only certain people are called to each rehearsal,” junior and stage manager Bryn Milder said.

When it comes to before the show, the crew increases the intensity of their preparation through a Tech Week. Typically, this consisted of running the show multiple times and finalizing tech designs. With the current guidelines, this year’s Tech Week required students to familiarize themselves with working through distance.

"We definitely won't be able to work in close perimeter as much as we would want to like in the sound booth where we do all lighting and sound," Milder said. 

Despite having to observe safety precautions, the crew and the cast were able to execute Tech Week successfully. 

“I think [Tech Week] is when it started feeling like a full show,” Shivkumar said. “Because usually it’s just the cast there but this time we had the entire crew and a full group of people really working towards creating a good performance.”

The success of “Hammered” was due to the combined efforts of the cast and the crew. Despite having a year of break, Northview’s theater department worked hard to create an entertaining and engaging production. 

“It’s made the process a little bit harder, but it also means everyone’s willing to work a lot to make sure we give a good performance,” Shivkumar said.