Oxford High Gets Scary With Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The OHS Theatre department’s production of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is one that should not be missed. The show’s opening night is this Thursday, Oct. 31, which is not- so-coincidently Halloween.

Junior Dan Schultz, who plays Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, gives the audience a warning. “It’s a good Halloween show, it’s creepy,” Schultz said.

Schultz looks for the audience to be “scared” after the play.

The scene is set with the use of fog and lighting, which enhances the spooky atmosphere.

Besides Schultz, the cast includes Joshua Redding, Ben Lilly, Conner Davis, Luke Toler and Sydney Hansen.

The cast of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde rehearse at Oxford High.

The first rehearsal for the play was on Oct. 7, giving the cast and crew only 24 days to put together the entire production. But in those 24 days they managed to do something incredible and put on an amazing show.

OHS theatre teacher John Davenport said he actually decided to do this play years ago. Although he wanted to do the musical adaptation of the play, the “timing hasn’t been right,” so they performed the non-musical version instead.

“I decided that we needed to do the play anyway because of the current junior class. I used the play as a reference one time and they didn’t know what I was talking about,” Davenport said.

According to Davenport, this adaptation of the play follows the book very closely, which works well because of the collaboration between the theatre department and English teacher Sommer Husbands.

“Mrs. Husbands and I decided that she would do a unit on it with the Pre-AP students and I would do the show,” Davenport said.

Along with the play, OHS is also hosting a haunted house, next to Belk, through Oct. 31. The price for both is $5 per person.

—Drake Taylor is member of the Oxford High School newspaper staff