East High Story

***East High Story*** is a play written by Mia Maddox, Finn Chamberlain and Candace Summerfield. It is based on the play *Romeo and Juliet* by William Shakespeare and also draws inspiration from the musical *West Side Story* and the film *High School Musical*.

The play follows two girls, Rhiannon and Juliet, from two rival school poetry cliques. The girls meet in the last week of summer vacation and quickly fall for one another before returning to school and realizing that their poetry affiliations position them as enemies.

## Overview

Two high school girls, Rhiannon and Juliet, meet at a poetry festival during the last week of summer vacation. The two are instantly attracted to one another and end their last night together by exchanging numbers before they go their separate ways.

On the first day of high school, the English teacher, Mr. Edmundson, meets with the leaders of the two rival poetry clubs at the school, Slam Squad and the Power Poets. He asks the two groups to be more civil to one another than they were last year and to consider merging into one. While Rhiannon (vice-head of Slam Squad) and Callie (head of the Power Poets) are eager to merge, Marissa (head of Slam Squad) and Tyler (vice-head of the Power Poets) refuse to do so. Rhiannon asks Marissa to be civil this year and she agrees to hold back.

Juliet begins her first day at this new school by meeting her old childhood friend, Phillip, who convinces her to join the Power Poets. Phillip harbors a childhood crush on Juliet and attempts to flirt with her, but she does not notice. Juliet and Rhiannon reunite; when Rhiannon learns that Juliet is a member of the Power Poets, she tries to persuade her to join Slam Squad instead, but Juliet refuses. Later, Juliet befriends Nancy, a fellow member of the Power Poets and the only openly lesbian student at school. Juliet confesses her feelings for Rhiannon to Nancy, who encourages her to forget about her feelings because it will cause too much trouble within the cliques. Instead, Juliet begins to advocate publicly for the rival groups to unite, angering Tyler and Phillip.

Rhiannon enlists her best friend, Belinda, to sneak into a Power Poets meeting with her to find out more about the group and build towards peace. They are caught by Tyler, who berates them and kicks them out. After coming out to Belinda about her feelings for Juliet, Rhiannon tries to convince Slam Squad to open a dialogue and reconcile with the Power Poets, but Marissa refuses. Desperate, Rhiannon turns to former leader of Slam Squad, Freddie Lewis, for help. Freddie Lewis finds spots for Rhiannon and Juliet to meet secretly. Both commit themselves to ending the rivalry between the poetry groups and kiss.

Meanwhile, Tyler writes a poem for the school newspaper criticizing Rhiannon and Belinda for their failed attempts at trespassing into a Power Poets meeting, suggesting that they did so because they feel insecure about their own poetry. Rhiannon, though outraged, is calmed by Belinda; however, Marissa lambasts her for her recklessness. Taking matters into his own hands, Freddie Lewis attempts to speak to both Callie and Marissa about ending the feud. Although Callie wants to end the fighting, Tyler's poem has destabilized her role as leader, making it difficult for her to make controversial decisions with the group's respect. Marissa refuses to take Freddie Lewis's advice, condemning for defecting from Slam Squad the previous year by calling him a coward.

Juliet grows tired of Phillip's attempt to flirt with her and comes out to him as gay; feeling rejected, Phillip tells Tyler about Juliet's sexuality. Tyler interrupts a private meeting between Marissa and Rhiannon to challenge Rhiannon to a fight, claiming that since Rhiannon's lesbianism practically makes her a man, she should be capable of fighting him. Rhiannon refuses and Tyler eventually leaves. Rhiannon confirms her attraction towards Juliet to Marissa, who demotes Rhiannon indefinitely from her position as vice-head for making emotionally driven decisions, despite Rhiannon's protests. Tyler threatens to kick Juliet out of the group if she continues to associate with Rhiannon. Realizing that Phillip has betrayed her, Juliet tearfully decides to leave the group.

During lunch, Tyler presents a new poem outing Rhiannon and Juliet to the whole school and calling them "dykes". Infuriated, Marissa starts a food fight by pelting Tyler with spaghetti and is suspended for her actions, whilst Tyler gets off with three weeks of detention. Mr. Edmundson bans both poetry groups from operating, threatening suspension to those to try to run the groups underground. In response to Tyler's poem, Nancy leaves the Power Poets and apologizes to Juliet for not supporting her better. Phillip attempts his own apology, but Juliet turns it down.

Rhiannon assumes leadership of Slam Squad and organizes a poetry battle between the two groups, ignoring Juliet's pleas not to escalate tensions further. Rhiannon leaves a note in Tyler's locker requesting that the two "end this, once and for all, after school". In an emergency Power Poets meeting, Callie tries to demote Tyler and demand reconciliation between the poetry groups, but Tyler's popularity within the Power Poets, as well as Rhiannon's letter serving as evidence of Slam Squad aggression, allows him to vote Callie out of the group entirely, establishing him as its new leader.

Hearing of Rhiannon's plans, Freddie Lewis teams up with Nancy to inform Mr. Edmundson of the upcoming fight but refuse to reveal that Rhiannon has called for it, hoping that Tyler will start the fight and as such receive the heavier punishment. As Freddie Lewis and Nancy predict, Tyler throws the first punch at Rhiannon, but Mr. Edmundson is not there to see it. Tyler continues to beat up Rhiannon until Juliet steps in and kicks him in the shin. She urges Rhiannon once again to stop the fight, but Rhiannon refuses, using her advantage over Tyler to attack him aggressively, during which time Mr. Edmundson arrives. He threatens Rhiannon with expulsion, but since he cannot prove who started the fight he decides to give them each a suspension. Rhiannon attempts to reach out to Juliet, but she rejects her advances, saying that she needs a romantic partner who will listen to her and respect her wishes, which Rhiannon failed to do.

The next week, Juliet accuses Mr. Edmundson in a poem published in the school paper of allowing homophobia an easy pass, using his treatment of Tyler as an example. Callie regains her position as leader of the Power Poets, while Belinda becomes head of Slam Squad. With Freddie Lewis acting as moderator, the two begin the process of reconciling and uniting the two groups.

## History

In "Best Side Story", Finn Chamberlain, Mia Maddox and Candace Summerfield are selected to write an adaptation of *Romeo & Juliet* to be performed by members of their eighth grade class later that year. However, the three struggle to write a strong script because of their creative differences. Eventually, they settle on *One Field Apart*, a script in which two students from rival schools fall for one another but are driven apart by the competition of football season. While the script is being developed, auditions are held based off the original play. Anastasia Holmes and Heather Alloy both battle for the main female role of Juliet, which Heather ends up receiving.

In "The Third Strike", Mia continues rewriting the script for *East High Story* behind Finn and Candace's backs. When Finn finds out, he is initially angry, but agrees to read over Mia's revisions that night, which detail a lesbian relationship inspired by the kiss shared between Mia and Heather over the summer. Although worried about the way the lesbian relationship will be received, Finn is impressed by the new script and agrees to work with Mia in revising the new version of the script.

In "You're the One I Don't Want", Finn fills Candace in on the script's revision. She is excited about the concept of a lead lesbian couple and agrees to read over the script. Finn and Mia later go out for coffee to talk about the script and decide to name the new female lead Rhiannon. Mia tells Finn that she does not want Rhiannon and Juliet to get together at the end because she wants to emphasise the importance of communication in a healthy relationship. That night, Finn and Mia video chat to discuss Candace's edits, especially her suggestion to make the antagonist Tyler more blatantly homophobic and her inclusion of the word "dykes" in one of Tyler's poems. Finn is nervous about it, but Mia reassures him that it will be cut if it is deemed inappropriate.

In "Name in Lights", Finn, Candace and Mia reunite to finish off the script after receiving critiques from teachers. However, because the script is so different, auditions have to be held once more. Anastasia's audition is sabotaged by Heather, for which she unsuccessfully attempts to get payback. The cast of the production is revealed, with Paulina Sandoval as Rhiannon; Heather Alloy as Juliet; Jerome Garrison as Tyler; Courtney Reynolds as Marissa; Morgan Cavanaugh as Freddie Lewis; Oliver Parrish as Phillip; Kristin Jennings as Callie; Anastasia Holmes as Nancy, Esmeralda Valdez as Belinda; and Samuel Faulkner as Mr. Edmundson.

In "Picture Nay", Finn and Mia discuss their choices for the rest of the production team's crew. They select Trina Flowers and Dominique Wolfe as musical directors, Delilah Santiago as choreographer and Chenille Doberman as vocal coach.

In "Heatherstasia", Heather's increasingly antagonistic behavior towards Anastasia, Finn and Mia decide to recast many of the female roles in the play. They decide to cast Anastasia as Rhiannon in order to force Anastasia and Heather to get along. They also recast Paulina as Marissa, Courtney as Callie and Kristin as Nancy. While it doesn't work at first, especially since Anastasia now has the lead role that Heather so desperately longed for in the beginning, the two eventually decide to put their differences aside and work together at least until the show is over.

In "A Girl by Any Other Name", the night of the play arrives. Heather initially refuses to go onstage, throwing a tantrum and declaring the play to be terrible. She then locks herself in a bathroom stall. Mia, Finn, Anastasia and Candace all go to the bathroom to check on her. Believing that Mia is the only person in the bathroom, Heather says that Mia has betrayed her by making her act as Anastasia's lover and reveals that she has a crush on Anastasia and is attracted to girls. After Mia and Heather share a private conversation, Heather is ready to perform and *East High Story* premieres to a positive reception.

## Cast and crew

### Crew

* **Directors**: Finn Chamberlain and Mia Maddox
* **Writers**: Finn Chamberlain, Mia Maddox and Candace Summerfield
* **Musical Directors**: Trina Flowers and Dominique Wolfe
* **Vocal Coach**: Chenille Doberman
* **Choreographer**: Delilah Santiago
* **Stage Manager**: Candace Summerfield

### Cast

* Anastasia Holmes as **Rhiannon**,
* Heather Alloy as **Juliet**,
* Jerome Garrison as **Tyler**,
* Paulina Sandoval as **Marissa**,
* Morgan Cavanaugh as **Freddie Lewis**,
* Oliver Parrish as **Phillip**,
* Courtney Reynolds as **Callie**,
* Kristin Jennings as **Nancy**,
* Esmeralda Valdez as **Belinda**,
* Samuel Faulkner as **Mr. Edmundson**,