The production of the ninth and tenth grade play, Emma, originally scheduled to be performed on December 13 and 14, was postponed due to the flu epidemic and school cancellation at Poly Prep. Despite the setback, the cast persevered, creating a piece that excited and intrigued the audience. Keith McDonald, Poly PM Enrichment Teacher and the Director of Emma, hoped to maintain a positive morale within the cast, and began using this newfound time as a way to further enrich the piece. “What felt like a real setback, ended up being a total blessing. It gave us time to step away, and ultimately tell the story better,” McDonald said.

During the beginning of the flu outbreak, the cast continued to rehearse despite some of the actors feeling under the weather. However, as the sickness continued to spread, Poly had no choice but to shut down classes and after school activities for that Wednesday, December 10, and Thursday, December 11. The announcement led to McDonald’s decision to postpone the play, allowing for more time in production to further perfect the piece. 

While the response from the cast was negative at first, many quickly decided to use the extra time as an opportunity to improve their character. “I think it actually positively impacted production because it gave us more time to learn all of our scenes,” said Mick Waldman ’28. After a lot of time to recharge and go over scenes everyone was “finally prepared to complete [the play] after a lot of preparation,” said Waldman. After the cast reunited on Tuesday, December 16, the rehearsal process began once again. 

While the negative effects of the long break were noticeable because of forgotten lines and missed entrances, McDonald used his time over the break to look at the creation in a new light. “For me, stepping away for that amount of time, looking at it very minimally over break, I was able to hear the play fresh when we got back,” said McDonald. As Waldman put it, “Even if it’s a little bit bumpy at first, it’s still super fun, because that means that you’re getting closer and closer to the final production.” 

The strong team chemistry McDonald fostered among the performers also allowed for more comfortability despite all of the struggle. “I grew up in sports, so I see it as a basketball or football team, just things I love, and things I grew up with. Once you learn the plays and how to go through them, it’s sort of similar to the beginning of the theatrical process,” McDonald said. Actor Tyler Chan 28 similarly said that it was McDonald’s collective and positive team spirit that improved production even when confidence was low. “The day before the show, morale was down. But I think that Mr. McDonald helped us by being supportive but also strict in a way,” Chan said. 

While “Emma,” the novel written by Jane Austen, was originally dated back to 1816, many directors and fans of the arts attempted to remodel the book into a theatrical performance over the last two centuries. McDonald was searching for an adaptation of “Emma” that helped with that looming question, as well as a script that fit the modern audience perfectly. “It’s been contemporized by Kate Hamill. She did this to a lot of narratives that are in the public domain and updated them for a modern audience,” said McDonald. The cast hoped to maintain the central themes displayed in Jane Austen’s original novel, while also sprinkling in just a bit of modernity. In the end, McDonald enjoyed how the final piece came out, stating that “watching faculty members laugh at some of the literary components to the play, and then watching some of our younger student audiences laugh at silly jokes, it was intriguing to me.” 

Although there were some emerging difficulties and bumps in the road, the cast persevered, using the newfound time to make the performance satisfactory for both the actors and the audience. As McDonald expressed, “Stepping away from it let me see the play fresh again, and in the end, it ended up being a total blessing.”