Tuscarora’s Performing Arts Sets Up a Field Day for Cast of Lord of the Flies

LEESBURG VA: On October 1st, 2022, Mrs. Alyssa Sera Josep, the director of the fall play, set up a Field Day for the cast. Field Day consisted of a bunch of games and awards that people could come and watch as the cast played. 

“We did Field Day as a way for the cast to bond and stay in character. And to establish the rivalry between Ralph and Jack, and their respected teams,” Mrs. Sera Josep states. 

There were two teams, the Red Team, or as they called themselves “The Gobstones” since all their characters came from that school in play and the Blue Team. On the Red team, there was Claudia Hunn, Ava Peach, MacArthur Maryn, Alex Jones, Emma Marfia and William Anderson. The Blue Team had D’Andre Bullock, Jaidan Braddock, Queen Kincaide, Elena Brunton, Katie Brunton and DJ Levi. Everyone had to stay in their character for the event. 

“I was on Blue Team because I was substituting for Michael Anthony as Ralph because he could not be there,” Bullock, who plays Henry and is Ralph’s understudy, said. 

Lord of the Flies Field Day also had a committee to help Mrs. Sera Josep with all the jobs and responsibilities of Field Day. There were two referees, choreographer and Lord of the Flies voice Dillan Vanzego and dramaturg Joelle Aheto, scorekeep and announcer, lighting designer, house manager and Lord of the Flies voice understudy Jordan Ayoub, a photographer, makeup and hair designer Addison Zimmerman and a sub, set director William Anderson who ended up subbing for James Mangovski on the Red Team. 

Vanzego stated, “My favorite part was being able to yell at the other teams and rile them up a little bit because I was a biased referee.”

“At some moments, actors weren’t doing what they were supposed to do,” Ayoub said, “But as a whole, Mrs. S. made our jobs very easy.” 

Games played were a Relay Race, Trivia, Find the Shell, Tug-of-War, and a Rap Battle. Certain games, like the Relay Race, had multiple people participating while others, like the Rap Battle only had a single person from each team playing. The Red Team won Tug-of-War, two rounds of Capture the Flag, and the Relay Race. The Blue Team won Trivia, one round of Capture the Flag and the Rap Battle. 

“My least favorite part about Field Day was watching Alex get destroyed in the Rap Battle because we already knew Queen was going to win going into it because you can’t beat Queen in a rap battle. It’s pretty much impossible,” Hunn said, “We all spent half an hour writing lines down for Alex in a google doc so he would have something to go off of but we only had five things and then ran out of rap lines to say. But he did a good job. So if that was the worst thing that happened, I think it was a pretty good day.” 

The awards at Field Day included, Most in Character, MVP Blue, MVP Red, Fan Favorite and Overall Winner. Elena and Katie Brunton won the Most in Character, Kincaide won MVP Blue, Marfia won MVP Red, Braddock won Fan Favorite and the Overall Winner of Field Day was the Red Team. 

“Blue Team’s bollocks, their rubbish. I’m going to bomb them like I did the bombs of England. Bombs, they are going to keep killing and killing each other with bombs and the bombs won’t stop. Red Team were the bombs and the Blue Team was England. God save the Queen,” Maryn said as his character Roger, who he explains as, “very silent, sadistic and psychotic, however he does not want the others to know. He has a very violent and erratic psychopathic nature that he doesn’t want to let shine until later in the shine. But he does have a strong sense of loyalty to Jack.” 

When talking to people who went to watch the show, it became apparent that it wasn’t as interesting to watch as it was to actually play in. Though the audience was brought in to the Find the Shell where they got to hide the shell being hidden, that was the extent it was to play with the cast members. 

When asked if she would go watch Field Day again, audience member Alyce Snead stated, “I don’t know. I think it’s hard because, yes, I did want to support them but on the other hand, it got really boring towards the end.”

“My favorite game was definitely the shell hunt because I got to be part of it and then having to hide the shell from the teams was really fun,” another audience member, Amira Noutcha said, “I think they should interact more with the audience because, even though the whole point wasn’t that, it was an aspect of it.”

When it comes to actually doing Field Day again, there is a debate among everyone. Some people do want to do it again with other shows, others don’t and a few want to do a theatre event but not another Field Day to make it work better for whatever other show they’d be doing, like Tuscarora’s Spring Musical, Hunchback of Notre Dame. 

“We did talk about if we should do another one and Hunchback, I personally don’t see Field Day fitting for Hunchback because it would be weird watching Esmeralda and Frollo play Capture the Flag with each other,” Bullock said.