“Three On A Bench,” by Doris Estrada, is a moving show about love, forgiveness and understanding. The one-act show has four lead roles, played by Wilmington Friends Upper School students: Joslyn Gardner ’16, Margaret Kane ’16, Evan Martinez ’15, and Jake Leviton ’15. Wyatt Thompson ‘15 directed the performance. Many students looked forward to the show and felt as if they had not been disappointed. Students and staff have all seen posters and announcements on the show and were all very excited for the performance.

When approached about the upcoming performance, the actors had only good things to say. Martinez said, “I’m excited, but not just to perform. I’m more excited to see how this entire thing looks in the end.” He was excited to be able to show people a new play that not many people have seen before.  Gardner replied to how she thinks students of Wilmington Friends will receive the play: “I think WFS students will really enjoy Three on a Bench because it’s a comedy. It has a lot of moments of humor, but Doris Estrada manages to sprinkle in profound moments that give a deeper meaning to the show.” It was quite obvious that the actors were all very excited for this play to take off and show off their talents to Friends students. The actors all got along very well. They have really enjoyed practicing and hanging out together. Kane said, “My favorite part so far is just spending time goofing around with the cast. Everyone is so much fun to work with and I think it’s going to be a great performance!” The actors were all excited to share all of the hard work they had been putting into the play. All of the actors and the entire production team had been putting many hours into the making of this show.

The production team for this play consisted of Wyatt Thompson ’15, Julia Blumberg ’15, and Jessica Saunders ’16. The production team had a very important role in planning the entire show; they had been making programs, promoting the show, casting the show, and building the sets. Thompson said that they had put a solid four hours into the show each day. The cast was also very busy with practicing and memorizing. They had all been practicing outside of rehearsals after they were casted. Kane, when asked about the preparations had admitted: “It’s been a lot of work connecting with and developing our characters since a lot of this performance is about how we move and our facial expressions and such.” They were all excited at the fact that people had a positive reaction to the show. They all really enjoyed performing it for all of the attendees.

Thompson responded to a question on what were the students and staffs reactions to the show, stating that he had received both a lot of questions and a lot of support. When asked about how he chose the play, he shared an interesting story. The play was reportedly in a work room off the side of the theatre and was one of the boxes that was not harmed during the Auditorium fire of 2012. When asked about how he plans on paying back the business meeting and what he will do with the rest of the money, Thompson responded, “I paid the first $180 back to business meeting, and then the rest will be put into the WFS Performing Arts fund.”

The group performed “Three on A Bench” on January 16th and 17th at 7:30. The overall reaction to the show has been completely positive. Students and teachers alike have only good things to say about the show. During the show, you could hear many people laughing at the quality jokes being made. The one-act show was a light-hearted affair that many enjoyed!