In response to the unique conditions of the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic on school performance, Hopkins Drama director Michael Calderone collaborated with show-creators Erika Schroth & Ian Melchinger to premiere a specialized production of a show they had in development.

The show, Killing Time, was designed for flexibility of casting, rehearsals, and performability by a young ensemble. These assets allowed us to pivot, again and again, to create a piece that nurtured the theater program and engaged as much school talent as possible.

Masked, distanced in compliance with CDC guidelines, outdoors with no tent: for performers and audience, this was the first live music and theater stage-show we’d experienced in over a year.

We plant that seed; may it grow!

Killing Time Team presents at the NEASC 2021 Annual Showcase and Convention

On Dec 8, 2021, faculty and students from the KT Team present a lecture/demo/Q&A on the theme of “What if…?”

COVID protocols inspired us to reconsider our spring musical. Needing a show that could pivot with weekly developments, we created our own book and songs, and committed all our resources maximize the student experience. We were able to create a true ensemble show, with no gender/ethnic/racial/body-type identity markers in the character parts; anyone could play any role.

As students watched us improvise, revise, adapt, and transcend obstacles, they saw a real-life, real-time model of what collaborative creativity can look like. What if this were not only a happy one-time outcome, but an actual curricular goal of our school program?

HDA presents KILLING TIME

Killing Time was blessed with lucky weather, and played a great run in May 2021.

the show

Time: 2025. Thursday afternoon.

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When this toxic workplace must self-evaluate for this takeover, its workers reveal the best and worst of themselves.
Art and heart win, greed and lies lose, and unlikely love defeats lonely despair