Parent Eric Klotzko and Keenan Warner, who plays Eurydice’s dad. (News photo — Naj Wikoff)

Popular high school plays include “Alice in Wonderland,” “Almost Maine,” ‘The Jungle Book,” “Peter and the Starcatcher,” and “Sherlock Holmes.” Keene Central Seniors Ella Robjent and Grace Stephens decided to take on a modern revision of the ancient Greek tragedy of “Orpheus and Eurydice” penned in 2001 by Sara Ruhl. The goal was to revamp the dormant Keene Central Drama Club, an effort not unlike launching a hiking club by scheduling K2 as the first hike.

“‘Eurydice’ is an adaptation of the ancient Greek tale that has many different layers and meanings,” said teacher Brad Hulbert, who mentored the students. “It’s a very ambitious undertaking. Ella, the student-director, staged the play. Along with directing, Ella performed as a member of a group of stones, the classic Greek Chorus. Grace played Eurydice, the title character.”

Sara Ruhl’s take is that Eurydice had a very tight relationship with her loving father, so tight that she had a hard time letting go to marry Orpheus and again, once dead, rejoin the living after finding her father in Hades. It brings to mind whether she was more in love with Orpheus’s singing, the words of his songs and poems, than he the person. Orpheus, played convincingly here by Jackson Ruppert, loved her with such a passion put to song that he was allowed to seek Eurydice in Hades. There was a condition; Eurydice would follow Orpheus back to the light if only he didn’t look back. He does.

Critical to the success of Ruhl’s Eurydice is being able to pull off the staging, treating the lighting as another character and, so too, the music and the silences, like three other actors equal in stature to any of the people on stage. Maddie Klotzko and Addison Van Ness’s delicate and precise use of the lighting, coupled with a sound and set team augmented by North Country School, were equal to the task.

Soren Jacobson had fun as A Nasty Interesting Man and Lord of Hades, which he played with great aplomb. While Jacobson has performed in previous Drama Club productions, Keenan Warner brought kindness and caring to his role as Eurydice’s father, belying his inexperience. Keenan carried his first time on stage like a practiced thespian, evidenced by the amount of material he had to deliver.

News photo — Naj Wikoff The leads, Grace Stephens (Eurydice) and Jackson Ruppert (Orpheus).

“It can be fun to play the devil,” said Soren. “There were a couple of things that I wasn’t super proud about, but in the end, I enjoyed it. I thought it was a wonderful play. I always thought that in a play, you need a lot of actors and special effects, but I liked this intimate, smaller-group production with its strategic use of light and sound. I thought it came off very well.”

Great fun was the Chorus of Stones, the Classic Greek Chorus that appears in all Greek plays, in this case, three, whose collective voice is as powerful and central as any other on stage. Avry LaVallee, Pia Morrelli, and Ella Robjent, who also directed the play, took on this critical role. Traditionally, the tragedy takes place when the characters fail to heed the warnings and concerns voiced by the Chorus, as does happen here. Avry, Pia and Ella gave weight to their warnings, heard as if an inner voice encouraging caution ignored.

“This was my first time directing,” said Ella. “I’ve worked before behind the scenes with lights and on set and been an actor, so it was very cool to direct because you have to have the vision to do all of it. I feel very proud of all the people involved in the play. Because of sports and all that, we had about a month to put this together.”

Global Studies and soccer coach Brad Hurlburt mentored Ella and Grace’s senior vision to rebuild the Drama Club and present Ruhl’s Eurydice, a play of love, loss, and desire. Grace took on the central character of Eurydice, desire and uncertainty writ large: a person torn by her emotions and vulnerable to the desires of others and her own.

“Ella chose the play, and I was so glad to be able to help bring it to fruition,” said Grace. “I think Eurydice is a beautiful story, and I love Sarah Ruhl’s interpretation of this Greek classic. I enjoyed taking on the role of Eurydice and helping bring Ruhl’s vision to the stage. I’ve never been in a play this small before, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to bring it to life with my classmates. I had to learn to relinquish my expectations, as I have never done theater like this before. I also thought Ruhl’s interpretation of a father-daughter relationship was very beautiful.”

Eric Klotzko, the father of lighting designer Maddie, who assisted with the sound production, said he was incredibly impressed by the performance of all the student actors.

“It hit me hard,” said Klotzko. “I saw it both nights; the story’s arch was powerful. Keenan, who played the father, and my daughter are in the same class. I’ve seen his talents as an athlete and musician, and this is now another side of him; it increases the evidence of what a remarkable human being he is.”

“When Ella asked me, even though it would be my first play, I said sure, I’ll do it; it’s senior play, sound like fun,” said Keenan Warner. “And then I got to know my character, to understand his morals, his emotions, and it stuck with me. He’s very serious, and then he’s dead; he still tries to support his daughter. It was beautiful.”

“There is a lot in the play that’s not said; there are big silences; being in the lighting booth, I learned more and more each time,” said Maddie Klotzko. “I wished more people would have come both nights as each performance was a bit different, which was fun to experience.”

“The Stones stole the show,” said Brian Lavallee, slightly biased as his daughter was one. “The play was amazing and beautifully quiet. It’s not easy to do quiet in a play, especially for kids. The whole scene of Keenan setting up the lights was gorgeous. He did it in the right amount of time.”

“To be comfortable with the kind of silence and intimacy, adult themes death and loss, the father-daughter relationship, all that, it was beautiful,” said Hurlburt. “I cried every time. The kids did an incredible job. I am so proud of them.”

Next spring, Ella and Grace have decided to take on Spamalot.

(Naj Wikoff lives in Keene Valley. He has been covering events for the Lake Placid News for more than 15 years.)