CMW decided to do a play adaptation of the Great Gatsby, and I was immediately very interested in it because I had never thought of Gatsby being adapted into a play before. It seemed like an interesting concept, but before I saw it, I wanted to interview Caydan Mahnke, someone backstage, to see how they made the play.    

I began by asking him, “What was backstage production like?” He spoke, “It was very stressful because I controlled everything, including all the techies.” He then told me that all the techies were first-year students coming in. This intrigued me, so I asked him if he did this in his first year. He said, “Yeah, I have been doing it for awhile.” I then asked if he knew why Ms. Bullis chose Gatsby, and he told me, “She originally planned to perform Gatsby during the COVID year, but it got canceled, so now that it is her final year, she decided to perform Gatsby now.” He then described how they have been staying till 8 every single day. I said that it must have been exhausting. He agreed that it was. 

The play was entertaining. It was full of the soul that is present in every high school production that always makes me smile. I really enjoyed Ryan Rainieri and Nathaniel Maniatis as Daisy and Gatsby. They preserved the sadness of the text very well in their performance, and they have stuck with me since then. The sets were also very impressive in a way I wasn’t expecting. I thought it would be one static background, but it wasn’t. They changed it very frequently. I thought that was impressive. Other than that, it was just a very faithful performance of Gatsby, which I am a fan of, so I enjoyed it.   

The Gatsby play was a very faithful good adaptation that came from a lot of passion. Overall, I recommend it.