The heavily anticipated production of Shakespeare in Hollywood at McQuaid Jesuit caught the attention of local news weeks before its release.

Every year McQuaid produces great plays and musicals, however it is nice to see recognition of it in local news. 

Wendy Mill’s article, “‘Shakespeare in Hollywood’ Hits the Stage at McQuaid This Week,” documents the pre-production of the play. She interviews Max Kresock, ‘20 and Spencer Dovi, ‘20, who are two leads of the cast. In the interview Max Kresock said, “The whole production team did a great job and is hard at work. It’s crazy.”

Tom Crowley, ‘20, Max Kresock, and Spencer Dovi also made an appearance on Fox Rochester in “Good Morning Rochester” to help advertise the production.

However despite this coverage, did the play live up to the hype surrounding it? With an excellent cast and great stage management, Shakespeare in Hollywood was a fantastic production that left the audience roaring with laughter.

The set was designed very well, with an innovative use of projectors to establish multiple locations in one scene. Actors and actresses in the production worked very hard to believe what they were saying, which led to an extremely engaging performance.

After speaking with the producer Mr. Patrick DePippo, ‘05, he emphasized how news coverage made a significant impact on sales to the show. Wednesday night had 89 ticket sales, and Thursday night had 87. However Friday night saw an exponential increase of 235 ticket sales to the play. He attributes this jump of sales in part to the news coverage surrounding the production.

Mr. DePippo also mentioned that local celebrities such as Worm 101.3 on air personality Pat Rivers attended the show after seeing it on “Good Morning Rochester.” 

The director of the play was Mr. Siuda, who has only directed one other show at McQuaid. Our Town was the fall production last year, which also managed to receive coverage from the press. According to “McQuaid’s Production of ‘Our Town’ Engages Audiences” by The Lance journalists Jack Murphy, ‘20, and Brennan Shanahan, ‘20, it was a smash hit.

Mr. Siuda has directed two shows at McQuaid that both received outstanding news coverage. The trend is looking great for McQuaid straight plays, and we’ll just have to wait until next fall to see how it goes.