Foundation Academy presents ‘The Internet is Distract — Oh Look, a Kitten!’

Foundation Academy’s high-schoolers researched and analyzed different apps and websites for its upcoming play, “The Internet is Distract — Oh Look, a Kitten!” by Ian McWethy at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, and Saturday, Nov. 8, at its Tilden Campus. 

The play is a comedy about a 16-year-old named Micah who only has 20 minutes to finish her paper on “The Great Gatsby.”

To do so, she needs to check a few facts on the internet, which leads her down a rabbit hole of distractions. 

Students portray certain social media apps and websites and its impact on internet users. 

To do that, they went through extensive research and analyzed each one to come up with what they might act like, what their personalities might be like. 

“We go through time working on those type of things for each one so that a student can bring what’s two dimensional in black and white on a page into life on the stage,” said Greg Csefko, Foundation Academy’s theater director. “If you want to be entertained and educated at the same time, I think this is the type of production that can do that.”

DIRECTOR’S TAKE 

Csefko said it took about three months to choose a play for the one act. 

This one act was chosen due to its simplicity yet its enjoyable energy. 

“(It gives a) very poignant message through comedy of our situation with the media and how it affects us on a regular basis,” he said. 

Through comedy, the play gives the message that the internet can be a helpful tool or it can be a harmful one.

“You have to decide how you use it,” he said. “If you use it properly, you can find a lot of success. If you don’t, it will control you.” 

On average, the cast has been rehearsing since September four days per week for about two-and-one-half hours, which is a commitment Csefko is glad students are taking on. 

“It’s a challenge,” he said. “When you’re a student, you have so many things to do. To put in that kind of commitment and have that asked of you says a lot about their character when they’re able to pull it off.”

As the performance approaches, Csefko said he is proud of the actors’ hard work and dedication to the play. 

“There’s a really fun, enjoyable interplay between two of the main characters that I really enjoy, the actors bring a real natural feel to it, that I really enjoy,” he said. “So as I watch it, they genuinely feel like friends as they’re performing, and then all the other websites and apps that different actors play, they bring more character and life to it. … I really enjoy the way the students are depicting people.”

Through the rehearsals and soon the performance, Csefko hopes students learn something and are proud of what they did. 

“My biggest hope, when we do this type of stuff, is that at the end, each student involved is able to walk away feeling like they accomplish something individually and collectively,” he said. “I’m always hoping that they get a sense of accomplishment and that they did it together as a team, and it brought them closer together relationally.”

CAST AND CREW

All students who auditioned for the play got a part. 

For some, this is their first performance as high schoolers. For others, this is their last performance. 

Jaslyn Quintana is a senior and plays Micah, the 16-year-old girl who is trying to finish her “Great Gatsby” paper. 

“Performing has always been my life,” she said. “I did our first one act we did, (which) was sophomore year, and that was a lot of fun and it was so special. I was hoping we’d do a one act again before I graduated. Now that I’m a senior, I wanted to give it one more go and hope that it’ll be just as special.” 

Being the main character comes with its challenges, though. 

“One thing that’s challenging about this script specifically is Micah’s repetitiveness,” she said. “She tends to say, ‘Wi-Fi on, Wi-Fi off, close window, open window, maximize windows, open Facebook, close Wikipedia,’ all that stuff and it all sounds the same. I think that’s the biggest challenge for me. … I’ve never had anything like that as a role before so that’s my biggest learning curve as of for this show.” 

Micah deals with a variety of apps and websites like Google that impede her from finishing her schoolwork. Google is the main antagonist of the play and is played by freshman Ember Davidson. 

“I feel like because I’ve been surrounded by (the internet) my whole life, I can portray it a little bit better in acting,” Davidson said. “I read through the script and we did our first few run throughs with all the lines and they came so easily to me. I was really surprised, but also really relieved. I’m really proud of myself since this is my first time doing Thespians.”

She said she went back and forth on auditioning for the play for a long time. As a freshman, she was scared she was going to be “massively” stressed out with assignments and homework. 

After texting with Quintana about her concerns, she decided to audition and got the part. 

“I knew deep down, I can do this,” she said. “And even if I’m pushing myself, that’s a learning experience, so I’m glad I did it.” 

She is excited to see people’s reactions to the jokes and is looking forward to making people laugh.

“I always enjoy seeing them together, working on it because of the laughter that they have while they’re working on it,” Csefko said. “You can see that they enjoy doing it together. You can see that they’re getting the jokes and that they’re having fun telling the jokes.”

The production will be sent to Florida Thespians for its district competition Nov. 20. 

“What I like about it is it’s both entertaining and educational, but it’s also very topical,” Csefko said. “It deals with stuff (happening) today, so it’s so relatable.”