On the weekend of Oct. 20, nerves were high as the advanced drama students at San Marcos High School got ready to go on stage and perform their fall play “Radium Girls.” These actors have been working on this show since the beginning of the year and have created a community where they are all able to thrive.

One member of the advanced drama class is Senior Maddox Ross. He is one of the co-directors of activities for the drama club and played multiple roles in Radium Girls, including Edward Markley, Dr.VonShohokey and an elderly widow. Ross also has an extensive knowledge of Sonic the Hedgehog lore. When it came to the audition process, members of the drama class, including Ross, were asked to prepare a monologue to perform in front of the whole class.

“I didn’t feel nervous, because I knew everyone was there to support and uplift each other,” Ross said, “The Radium Girls cast was an amazing community. Through seeing each other in classes, Knight Zones, and tech days, we all were able to get to know each other better than we had prior.”

Since the senior class of 2023 has had most of their high school experience on zoom or socially distanced, they really haven’t had a year to create a community with everyone together. This has been San Marcos High’s first fall play in three years which means that not only is this the senior class’ first fall play, but also their last. 

“As sad as I am to go, I know there’s an incredible amount of talent coming into our department,” Ross said, “I have no doubt things will continue to operate in the way I know and love once I leave.”

The class started the creation of Radium Girls in late August, and rehearsed for almost two months during their drama class period, and finally put it on on Oct. 20 and 22. However, this wasn’t the smoothest process. There were a few bumps in the road including costume mishaps, skipped lines, and figuring out how to drill a drill into a piece of wood to make a fake gravestone, but it all came together in the end. Sadly, along with these bumps, there were also many roadblocks.

Ross said “The worst part, in my opinion, was the limitations we faced. Despite our creativity and drive to create, we had restrictions both with time, money, and resources. All of our ideas couldn’t be put into the end product, and we didn’t have quite enough time to figure everything out in a way we would’ve liked.”

The show ended last month and was a great production, there were humorous moments to offset the dark, and it felt like a very strong show. This may be the end of fall plays for the senior class but the school has an amazing program to work off of.

“Overall, though?” Ross said,” We slayed.”