Bronxville Middle Schoolers Shine in Radio Mystery Theatre

Laughter and applause accompanied Bronxville middle schoolers as they performed Radio Mystery Theatre in front of a crowd of parents, faculty and fellow classmates on Friday night.

The production, which was held in the high school auditorium on Saturday evening as well, ran for close to two hours and included some 30 students on stage and 8 in the crew, with the majority of the group coming from the 6^th and 7^th grades.

"The work the kids have been doing has been phenomenal," said director and middle school teacher Lindsey Blackhurst before the show. "They really pulled together."

The production, which Blackhurst describes as a "show within a show," was a take on The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a radio-show from the1940's. Students acted out three original Sherlock Holmes scripts—The Adventure of the Tolling Bell, The Case of the Dead Adventuress and The Problem of Thor Bridge.

"It's not an easy script," said Blackhurst, explaining that students were often presented with difficult language and words they weren't used to.

The mysteries were interspersed with commercials and songs sung by the "Cramlettes," who were dressed all in red.

Under the direction of musical director Lloyd Arriola and choreographer Helen Coope, numbers like "Sara Lee," which had students dancing and singing on stage while carrying boxes of Sara Lee products, met with lots of laughs from the audience. Other songs performed included "You're never fully dressed without a smile," "Popular," by Stephen Schwartz and "There's no business like show business."

On adding the commercials, Blackhurst says, "Some of it was written into the original scripts and some of it I added because I wanted a coherent way in which to incorporate a variety of songs from different eras." 

The idea for the production came to Blackhurst after she spent some time looking for scripts suitable for middle schoolers. "There's a lot of awful material out there for this age group," she said. 

But the material seemed to suit students well, even after they had to battle various obstacles during the rehearsal period. There was construction in the auditorium, some of the rehearsals overlapped with those for "Just Sing," (which high school and middle school students performed back in April), and there was even a stomach virus that went around, explained Blackhurst.

"It's the little production that could," she said. 

And parents who came to see the show were very impressed with their children's performances, commenting on the great costumes and enjoying the time period in which the show was set.

"I thought it was outstanding," said Michelle Mayer, whose 6^th grader, Arden, was in the show, "The story was complex enough that it kept your interest."

Eugene Briskin, whose daughter Lilia is in the 7^th grade echoed the sentiment. "I was especially impressed with the quality of singing," he said, "It went very well."