SILOAM SPRINGS -- After almost two years, the Siloam Springs High School theater group will present "The Canterbury Tales" in several performances during November.
There will be two student performances today, said Director Dana McCutcheon and four public performances beginning this weekend.
The public performances will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. Nov. 12, 7 p.m. Nov. 13 and 3 p.m. Nov. 14, McCutcheon said.
It will be the theater group's first production since the fall of 2019, McCutcheon said.
McCutcheon said that tickets for the public shows are $10 per person and can be purchased at the Siloam Springs High School online store, the high school website or the door.
Originally scheduled to be performed during the spring of 2020, McCutcheon said that the production of "The Canterbury Tales" stopped rehearsing two weeks after they started in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's been a long time for us, and we're ready to be back," McCutcheon said.
The production is an adaptation by Lindsay Price of Geoffrey Chaucer's original story of "The Canterbury Tales," McCutcheon said. The story is about a group of pilgrims traveling to the cathedral in Canterbury, McCutcheon said.
McCutcheon said that despite still being in the middle of the pandemic, no cast member has had to be quarantined.
"It's been a little nerve-racking because of never knowing when a student might get quarantined or come up sick," McCutcheon said.
During the student productions, attendees will be required to sit in every other seat, McCutcheon said.
The public performances will have the theater at only half capacity, she said. School staff will recommend masks and social distancing also, McCutcheon said.
Senior Reece Edwards, who plays the Franklin and four other parts in the show, was one of the cast members from the 2020 production of "The Canterbury Tales" and is happy to be back on stage.
"So it's been a challenge doing five roles, lots of lines to memorize," Edwards said. "But this is the role that I auditioned for because I wanted to finish out my role as the Franklin."
Edwards said McCutcheon approached him because the production was short on male actors and she believed Edwards could handle the challenge of having five roles.
Molly Self, a senior playing the prioress, didn't have a specific role in mind when she auditioned. Self has been in the background playing side characters in previous productions but will be playing a prominent role for "The Canterbury Tales," she said.
Self was part of the original production as the makeup manager and will assume the role again for this show, she said.
"We're just really thankful to get this going," Self said.
