Andra Ionescu ’24, Noah McBride ’23, and Amelia Sipkin ’25 perform in Salvation Road
Written by D.W Greggory, Salvation Road, a haunting story that shed light on the dangers of conformity, electrified the Choate community. The production took center stage on the evenings of November 4, 5, and 6 in the Paul Mellon Arts Center (PMAC). The play, written by Ms. D.W. Gregory and directed by theater faculty member Mrs. Kate Doak P ’22, follows the lives of a teenager named Cliff, his younger sister Jill, and his childhood friend Duffy. After Cliff’s sister, Denise, joins a religious cult in college to “do good’ in the world and severs contact with her family, Cliff and Duffy set out to look for her. On a road trip to search for Denise, they find clarity in their lives and learn about empathy.
Mrs. Doak was drawn to Salvation Road because it highlighted the vulnerability that all students, no matter how intelligent or ambitious, face when transitioning into an unfamiliar environment away from home. “I have two kids going off to college, and I also teach freshmen here, so I often spend time thinking about how hard the transitions can be coming to a new school, especially someplace that’s really big, and how students work to navigate where they land in terms of their friendships and what they get involved in,” Mrs. Doak said.
A notable change made to Choate’s production of the play was the switch of Duffy’s gender from male to female. With the permission of Ms. Gregory, Duffy was played by Andra Ionescu ’24, whom Mrs. Doak thought perfectly fit the role. Mrs. Doak appreciated that this change showed “a male and female friendship from middle school that’s endured through high school.”
Another unique addition to the play was the music produced and provided by singer and songwriter Dora Jar ’15. Since graduating from Choate, Jar has released two singles and three EPs. She has also opened multiple Billie Eilish tours. One of her songs, “Did I Get It Wrong,” was featured in the opening scene. Snippets of instrumental sections from her song “It’s Random” were also used to underscore transitions in the play and during the final curtain call.
Furthermore, two guest set and lighting designers collaborated with Choate to further enhance the play. Mr. Martin Marchitto, who has extensive theater experience and has been a faculty member at multiple colleges, served as set designer. Mr. Kevin Michael Reed, who works as a theater designer, producer, and director, amongst many things, designed the lighting and projections for the play.
Special features of the play that Mr. Reed helped design included the four projections on stage. Projections, broadly defined as using moving or still images to compliment a live production, are “a trend in designing, and it allows you to shift location really quickly and be artistic without it being confusing, and it helps clarify the spaces for people,” according to Mrs. Doak.
Mr. Reed used a software called QLab and hardware functionality to manipulate and control the images. Lighting angles and colors helped differentiate three periods of time in the play — past, present, and future — without changing the overall set. Mr. Reed, who thinks of the past as a warm experience, used warm orange and yellow tones to light the stage, while colder colors were used for scenes taking place in the future to highlight the unknown. “That goes to show how personal experience as a designer reflects in the art that you create on stage,” he said.
Much of the rehearsal process took place in the PMAC’s Chase Bear (black box) Theater, and the cast shifted to the main stage a couple of weeks before the performance. According to Ionescu, there were more factors to consider after shifting to the main stage because of the addition of props, lighting, and set, which were not present previously.
Throughout the rehearsal process, actors built a sense of trust in one another, which was important because “when it comes to fast-paced scenes, you have to trust that the other actor will catch you, go back and forth with you, will increase the tension with, create the scene with you,” said Noah McBride ’23, who starred as protagonist Cliff. Assistant Stage Manager Candace Beverly ’25 noted, “I think my favorite part was getting to see actors build relationships on stage in their own roles, but also offstage. It was cool to see friendships being formed.”
Mrs. Doak was happy that audiences understood the play to be about the vulnerable experience of a person joining a new school “and how you have to really rely on your best judgment to find a group of people that support you and have your best interests at heart.”
McBride said that despite a few mistakes and obstacles, the play was a success: “We caught each other when we made those mistakes and kept on going, kept on pushing, until we saw the end of the play.”
