After their school day and after their co-curriculars, a cast of 11 students gathers in the black box experimental theater to produce Red White and Blaine, this year’s Phoenix Presents. 

The play within a play was adapted by senior Dylan Douglas from a 1996 mockumentary entitled Waiting for Guffman. It tells the story of a small town, Blaine, which is putting on a production in honor of their 150th anniversary.

From costumes, reserving performing space, directing, choreographing and everything else in between Red White and Blaine is entirely student-run. The production has no faculty advisor and is instead directed by Dylan Douglas and Leah McLelland, with Jake Hoffman serving as the choreographer and Annie Rubinson serving as the Stage Manager.

“One of the advantages of having a total student-run production is that I can create a piece of theater that is solely mine. A lot of the jokes and subject matter are things that the school community wouldn’t really let us do. For example, we laugh at the school’s hyper-liberal environment. There are a few other surprises that people will have to come to see,” Douglas said.

Douglas has been working on adapting the show for around a year– it was originally written to be a spring short, but it was cut and later chosen to be the Phoenix Presents. One of the reasons the production was postponed was because of the process involved in order to secure the rights. Because the movie only grossed $3 million, the rights were almost non-existent and thus difficult to get.

Red White and Blaine will be playing for one night only, Friday, December 7 at 7:00 in the experimental theater.