Green Hope theater recently produced a performance highlighted by prestigious awards, incredible individual acting and an overall remarkable show. They performed Anon(ymous), a play by Naimi Iizuka. Anon(ymous) is a modern retelling of the Odyssey by Homer that revolves around Anon, a young refugee and his journey in the United States.
The GH Falcon had the opportunity to discuss this play with Green Hope theater teacher Mr. Peter Comperatore, who was the mastermind behind the production of the play. He discussed the success that they had already achieved, to which he said, “We took the play to the regional NC Theater Conference play festival where we got a superior rating, which is the highest rating. We also got individual awards for staging and directing. Dan Li was given outstanding actor for playing Anon and Elliot Bratcher and Amelia Gasper won an outstanding in tech award for sound design. We were also chosen as distinguished play, which means we get to go to the state festival.”
Mr. Comperatore put in significant work to find a play that the actors could relate to. He talked about the process of deciding which play to perform, stating, “ This year I really wanted to find something that was very multicultural, since we have a very diverse group. What was really cool with this script was that we got a chance for a lot of our actors to delve into their own backgrounds to find characters that they connected with. That’s one main reason why we chose this show.” Although Mr. Comperatore typically spends a lot of time searching for the correct play, he quickly decided on Anon(ymous).
With this play obviously came an immense amount of work, which Mr. Comperatore spoke about. To this, he said, “We’ve been working on this every single day in class. We start with this process called moment work, where we look at the script and look at what it’s about. After that, we start making these moments of the play through messing with sound and tech. From there, we go and lock the whole thing in.” Every day since the beginning of the school year, the theater team has been hard at work to make this production as perfect as possible.
Mr. Comperatore discussed what goes on after this play is over. “It’s our big project for our Theater 4 class, so it’s definitely something that I’ll start turning my brain into thinking about once this year is over. If students are interested in getting involved and signing up for classes, then they can audition and work their way up and perhaps they too can be a part of the play.” He elaborated on how students can get involved with theater, discussing how students could come to drama club or sign up for the Theater 1 class. Both of these opportunities, in Mr. Comperatore’s opinion, are great ways to get to know him and the theater program at Green Hope.
Dan Li (‘25), a senior at Green Hope and member of the theater group, also talked to the GH Falcon about Anon(ymous). He was the recipient of the outstanding actor award for his performance of the lead character, Anon, in the play. Li has been doing theater since his freshman year of high school, and first got involved when he took the Theater 1 class and was told to audition for the musical.
Li discussed his awards and what they meant to him, taking a different approach than one might expect. He valued the experience of the play much more than any physical award. “I received an outstanding acting award for this performance, but to me, I honestly didn’t care much about the award. I just thought the competition was really fun and I enjoyed getting to travel with some of my friends.” Li showed his dedication and heart towards the play by putting the team over his individual accomplishments.
As was mentioned by Mr. Comperatore, this play was chosen to allow the diverse theater group to delve into personal backgrounds and experiences. Li explained his thoughts on this and talked about the process of connecting with the characters. He said, “It’s a story about refugees, so it revolved around the life of Anon, the main character. In the background, however, we have a chorus of refugees who are unnamed characters. Each person who was playing one of these characters had to do background research on a potential refugee who they could connect with. He described the level of research that went into these connections, pointing out that students watched interviews with real refugees to get a stronger understanding and incorporate this into the play.
To elaborate on the current successes, Li and the other students in theater are already making improvements and adjustments to take their execution of the play to the state level, which they will perform on Nov. 21. While the actors perfect their scenes, an essential group to the production is also working hard to improve: the technical group.
Emma Wiatrak (‘25), spoke to the GH Falcon about her role in the play. Wiatrak has been doing theater since her freshman year and has worked her way up to being the technical director of the theater group. While she works with all of the other groups, her main job is to design the set used in Anon(ymous).
Wiatrak discussed the overall success of the technical group of the play and talked about some of the awards that they were presented. With the success of her team in mind, she said, “I individually didn’t receive any awards at the regional site, but we had our sound team win an award for the sounds that they created throughout the show, and we also won an excellence in staging award.”
Although she didn’t play a character in the performance, Wiatrak was fascinated by the clear connections that she could see the actors build with their characters. She spoke about witnessing this and said, “I could definitely see similarities between some of the actors and their characters as far as how they were able to draw connections, especially the unnamed refugees and how the actors discovered their characters. I thought it was interesting how they could relate themselves to these people.” Wiatrak’s take on the characters demonstrates that the level of research was exemplary and helped the play succeed.
Similar to the actors, Wiatrak and her technical crew are working hard to perfect the set before their next staging. While the actors are working on their roles in the play, the technical crew is fixing set pieces that may have been damaged in previous performances. With both of these teams working together to improve their already exemplary play, everyone is expecting success during their show at states.
Through hard work, research and dedication, the theater group has managed to create a play where everyone can feel a deep connection to their part. Overall, they have done an excellent job at telling the story of Anon, a refugee in the United States, with their already highly decorated performance of Anon(ymous).
