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The Student News Site of Millard West High School

The Catalyst
The Student News Site of Millard West High School

The Catalyst
The Student News Site of Millard West High School

The Catalyst
Jean Valjean, played by Caleb Hauser, rips up his parole documents, changes his name, and starts a new life. This photograph is heavily edited from everything to the background to the paper shreddings and is not an accurate representation of the set onstage.

Do you hear the people sing?

Luka Pashia
November 22, 2024
Juniors Issac Cotrell and Will Maddox work on choosing which sound effects would be heard best over both the orchestra and the actors' singing. “I ran the soundboard which included running the microphones for the leads,” Cotrell said. “Turning them on and off and adjusting their volumes if I needed to.” They used websites like Soundtrap to make a lot of the battle scenes or Zapsplat for other ones like rain.

The Miserables

Lexi Vore, Staff Reporter
November 14, 2024
Theater director Brooke Phillips earned the Inspirational Theatre Teacher of the Year Award, recognizing her dedication to her students and colleagues over the years. “Everything I do is for the students at our school,” Phillips said. “But any teacher will tell you the best part of our job is to know that we made some sort of difference.”

An inspiration to many

Jacob Larson, Sports Director
October 25, 2024
On stage, Juliet’s actor Lily Lane and Romeo’s actor Henry Hudson talk and flirt at Juliet’s balcony. At the Aug. 29 performance, the cast and crew had rehearsed this play many times already, with the hopes of portraying a heartfelt story, this was their first time performing for a packed theater. “Stay but a little, I will come again,” Lane (Juliet) said. “Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed.”

Bravo, star-crossed lovers

Luka Pashia
September 16, 2024
Running lines for the last time before performing, senior Lily Lane and sophomore Henry Hudson practice the balcony scene. Both actors are working on showing the love their two characters have for each other and paying extra attention to scenes like this.“I love it. It's the first time I've ever auditioned for a play so it was quite a surprise,” senior Lily Lane said. “My favorite part of playing Juliet is all her costumes. It makes me feel so pretty and I love my character voice.”

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo”

Lexi Vore, Staff Reporter
August 29, 2024
Brooke Phillips directing a play along with an assistant director. “I had a wonderful experience here and because I wanted to be a teacher I decided to mix my passions for theater and teaching,” said Phillips.” So I came back here to become the director of the theater program.”

Best in the midwest

Caden Reynolds
March 25, 2024
Mr. Green, a character notorious for his anxiety and germaphobia, played by Brykin Jones, is shown shocked and disgusted as two ‘dead’ bodies lay next to him.

Clue premieres with a full house

Valerie Pioppi, Staff Reporter
December 5, 2022
Sophomore Madalynn Johnson performs her callback song at the International Thespian Festival in Bloomington, Indiana., an opportunity only a handful of students experience. "I feel that all of the things that have happened made me a better performer, and also made me more confident in myself," Johnson said. "And to be honest, all that has happened this year and last year don’t seem real."

A natural performer

Paige Hightower, Staff Reporter
September 2, 2022
Projecting their voices, students from a dozen schools across the state spread awareness of the importance of theater. When advocating for theater, the students fight for every thespian in Nebraska to have equal funds to support their theater programs. “We met with our state senators to recognize theater as an important part of education, ” junior Isaiah Helenthal said. “ I contacted my senator and we asked to make an appointment to talk about theater, also how it affects us in hopes they recognize how impactful it can be, to students' lives, and the importance of theater education.”

Funding for the arts

Zianya Salgado, Staff Reporter
March 4, 2022
This is the group picture of the Theatre department attending the festival last year.

Tweaking theater traditions

Jasmine Hermosillo-Padilla, Editor-in-Chief Catalyst Online
December 18, 2020
In order to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading, the Theater Department decided to livestream the play for people to watch on Striv. Audience members were invited to watch the show from their homes. “The biggest challenge was making it accessible to the audience,” director Brooke Phillips said. “We couldn't have people come in person so we streamed it live and setting that all up for the first time was really tricky. I picked this play because it is about a family escaping world wide disasters over and over. Humans have survived wars, floods, dinosaurs, an ice age. I wanted people to feel like we could survive this crazy pandemic.”

A production abridged

Anna Blumenthal, Entertainment Editor
December 9, 2020
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