#1StudentNWI: Marquette Catholic High School’s first live play production since COVID-19 brings excitement into the community

#1StudentNWI: Marquette Catholic High School’s first live play production since COVID-19 brings excitement into the community

What’s happened: 

On October 30, the Marquette Catholic High School (MQTT) community came together and celebrated Halloween with a Halloween dance put together by the freshman team. This dance was a surprising change from how fall dances have normally been in the past. 

Usually, MQTT has a Sadies dance, where the girls ask the boys to attend the dance with them. This year instead of poufy, expensive, yet very beautiful ball dresses, and suits, students dressed up for Halloween! 

Everyone was very creative with their costumes. Some people wore individual costumes, couples costumes, and even group costumes. There were also costume contests to acknowledge students' costume creativity with the award of a Halloween-themed trophy for each contest. 

It was an amazing experience for anyone there and a wonderful way to engage, interact, and bond with peers in MQTT. 

What’s happening: 

Fall is here along with many school-based events! On Friday, November 5, MQTT is having the first Movie Night this year. “Nightmare Before Christmas” is playing in the gym. The concession will be selling popcorn, pizza, candy, and more! This will be a fun, informal, and relaxing experience for the MQTT students. 

This year’s fall play is coming up! Amy Crane, the school’s play director, and her students are performing a high school production of “Clue,” live.

This year’s play is exciting for the cast of “Clue.” Since the pandemic, Crane and her team have been recording their productions and streaming it online. While it was a nice way to stay safe and still give the students the experience they need and a chance to have fun, it still feels good to get back into the normalcy of it all and perform in front of a live audience. 

Come see the show in Rudy Hart Theater at Marquette Catholic High School on November 12 and 13 at 7 p.m., as well as November 14th at 2 p.m.

Teacher spotlight: 

As said before, this year’s fall play Clue is coming up. This is Amy Crane’s 51st theatre production with MQTT students. 

When asked why she chose Clue for production, Crane explained that she performed the musical a few years back and while it was a great experience and she worked with great people, the show, itself, was not the best. She always wanted the movie to be a play.

This past spring when she found a play production of it on the internet, she was skeptical at first, but when the production turned out to be legit and had gone through the correct legal procedures, she immediately knew that was the next show. 

“My least favorite part is making the rehearsal schedule and considering everyone’s conflict. My favorite part of the production process is opening night; definitely when you get to see people reacting to what you’ve guys have done. That’s the best,” said Crane. 

School is about learning and experience, especially when it comes to extracurricular activities. These activities give students a chance to have experiences, learn, and socialize outside of the classroom. 

Crane is passionate about her students and wants them to take away life lessons, a new sense of family, organization, time management, and perseverance. But most importantly, learning all of that while still having fun doing something they enjoy. 

Student Spotlight: 

Robert Johnson is an intelligent, hardworking student. He is a team player and contributes a lot to the MQTT community. Johnson is the student body president, Leader of MQTT’s tech team, member of the National Honors Society, as well as an active actor in MQTT’s theatre department. 

For Johnson, the hardest part of being the student body president as well as the leader of the tech team is balancing his responsibilities with his schoolwork, but in the end it’s worth it in his eyes because he is able to help those around the school and make a difference. 

“Ever since I was young, I’ve been interested in video games, but when I would play on my old computer I had, it would run very slow or wouldn’t do what I wanted,” he said. “So, because of that anger and frustration from that, I started to teach myself about computers, how they work, and how to fix the problems they were having. Overtime that evolved into a passion for technology.” 

This passion for technology has made Johnson strive for the ultimate goal of owning his own IT business one day or having an IT management job. With the way Johnson has been managing MQTT’s student and staff’s technology, his dream is sure to come true.

Johnson expects his experience as student body president to prepare him for his ultimate goal by teaching him how to manage people and positively impact a large community while the tech team helps him gain experience for a Computer Information Technology major.