Who’s Falling From The Sky?: Akiko and the Unknown

As a result of months of preparation for the play, students were able to perform “Akiko and the Unknown.” It took place in the Black Box Theater from Feb. 23-25 and lasted around 90 minutes. Akiko was specifically emission for the students at Niles West.

There was a lot of effort put into this production. Auditions started the second week of January, and the next week rehearsals started. It took six weeks to rehearse the play. The play had a guest director, Carl Alexander to direct and make up this play.

The story follows the three siblings, Akiko, Ren and Kaori. A thunderstorm hits their home, and once the power goes out, the three siblings go to the electrical box to turn their power back on. All of a sudden Kaori disappears, then Ren and finally Akiko. All three siblings are taken to the unknown realm in the sky, which is crowded with Wire Walkers and Soldiers. Although, Akiko has to face the Unkown so they can go home.

Freshman Eloise Tregoning was cast as a Wire Walker.

“I’ll be honest, I was confused when I was first reading the script, but I got the gist of it and just thought “well, it doesn’t hurt to try!” Then I got cast as a wire walker and got to be included in discussions during rehearsals about the different parts of the play, like what the Unknown is, and character motivations. Being able to talk out these different aspects that confused me, and listening to other people’s perspectives really made this play pretty amazing to me. Along with that, all of the other people involved both in crew and cast were so much fun to work with and made the whole experience feel amazing,” Tregoning said.

Audience members were thrilled about the show and had lots of compliments about the play.

“The play was very fun to watch and had a great storyline. The props were set up great and my favorite part was how during intermission you got to interact with the characters. I would honestly rewatch it again,” sophomore Alexander Yohanna said.

Everybody was working until the very last minute, especially backstage in between performances for the show. The clouds and telephone poles all took a scenic crew lots of time to create. The lighting crew also spent time setting up all of the lights to be perfectly positioned for the show, as well as the colors and shapes of the lights. The sound crew had the music for the chants created from scratch. The dirtied look of the wirewalker costumes took the costume crew multiple days to complete. Props crew handpainted all of the shields for the soldiers along with making the TVs, that were on the staircase, work.

Theater teacher Samuel Rosenfeld produced the show. “I loved the play. It was really cool for me because I wasn’t a part of this play at all because usually I direct most of the shows here at Niles West, but I did not direct this one. I think the director was very open to their perspective and their thoughts so they can contribute to the show. The play is not set in reality, so all the elements had to be imaginative and creative. I think our students had a lead opportunity for this play.”

Students and parents were on the waiting list as the show was sold out, due to the excitement and anticipation of the play. The next show will be Spongebob Squarepants, so don’t wait to get your tickets!