The House of C.S. Lewis Wins 2021 Drama Competition
The house of C.S. Lewis | Photo courtesy of Connor Walter
This year’s annual drama competition took place on Saturday, Feb. 27 with the prompt to script and perform an original live-action drama of a Bible character(s)’s freshman year at King’s in modern-day New York City. The House of C.S. Lewis came in first place, followed by the House of Margaret Thatcher in second and the House of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in third.
Students from each of the ten houses worked from 10:15 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. to write, memorize and perform a six-minute original skit. Similar to Interregnum, each house had an assigned classroom as their “war room” where they practiced during the day and watched their peers perform in the evening. The houses performed at 5:30 p.m. to a small audience of staff and faculty in the City Room.
“Overall, I just like how every competition brings the house together and showcases the individual talents that we don’t necessarily get to see on a daily basis or in academics. I think that is very valuable,” said Raegan Stanley, chamberlain to the House of Queen Elizabeth 1.
The House of Lewis’ winning skit followed the life of Elijah, who was played by Micah Long (HUM ‘21). After being taken up by God in a chariot of fire, (which they dramatized by playing the theme from “Chariots of Fire”), Long was given one more task by God to go to The King’s College and prophecy about a Chick-fil-A famine. In their skit, the students of The King’s College would now be forced to eat Subway at Public Reading of Scripture until they repented of their idolatry and turned back to God.
“A lot of the characters in other house’s competitions were just the biblical character and name used. Whereas, ours was Elijah falling off of his flaming chariot,” said Harrison Chapman, a member of the House of C.S. Lewis. “So my first appearance in the skit itself was as Dru Johnson. Elijah, as a new student, gets led to that class. We used an example of him pointing someone out in the class. Say that they proclaimed a curse, we would all get together. So it was kinda fun to poke fun at his style in that way. And like twirl around his glasses in my hands.”
Johnson responded to Chapman’s performance during the interview.
“My daughters told me, they didn’t tell me what you did, but all they told me is you will never be able to be comfortable in a class again without someone laughing at you,” Johnson said.
Drama competition is a beloved tradition at King’s, and it is one of the few competitions that only goes toward the House Cup and is not part of Interregnum. In past years, the prompt was released a few weeks before Fall Retreat that took place in September, and students would write and practice the skit in the evenings for a week or two before performing them on the final night of Fall Retreat. After budget cuts last year forced the cancellation of Fall Retreat, the college moved the drama competition to Parent’s Weekend and shortened it to a single-day event.