GODFREY - The Alton High School Theatre and Thespian Troupe 126 has a performance tonight and Saturday called “Whose Life is it Anway?” that will spark young and old to reflect on the production’s message for reflection.
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The showings take place at 7 p.m. at the AHS Auditorium, located at 4200 N. Humbert Road in Godfrey.
The main character in the play is Claire Harrison, who is involved in a tragic car accident and left a quadriplegic the rest of her life. She has been in the hospital for five months and she can't use her arms to care for her self and is completely reliant on nursing care to feed her, to change her catheter, etc., AHS Director Kristi Doering said.
“It is a thinker type of production,” Doering said. “The main character, Claire, tells doctors she doesn’t want to go through with her life anymore and the head doctors decide it is not her decision to make. She has to sue the hospital for her body so she has the right to die. This is the heaviest show I have done in the past five or six years.”
A total of 13 students are members of the Alton High School cast for “Whose Life is it Anyway?”
Olivia Freeman, an AHS student, plays Claire in the cast.
The two doctors who protest her decision have strong roles in the production and there is also a nurse who becomes close to Claire who plays a key role as well. Mary Jo is the student nurse who connects with Claire.
“A lot of the students said they had never thought about assisted suicide or dying with dignity and this had made them rethink it and gain their position on it,” Doering said. “I think it first surprised the students how serious the topic is and put some on a mission to look at other viewpoints and be solid on what they believe on these things.”
Doering said she loved her cast involved in the production, along with the stage crew.
“I am very blessed to be working with the kids I get,” she said. “The kids amaze me every year when we are ready to open the show. It is amazing to me everything you that we pull this off. Everybody tells me you did a fabulous job, but it is because of great, talented people with a passion for theater.”
Doering has been director of the AHS Theatre productions for nine years and worked at the school for 14 years. She said she was inspired by her high school teacher Mark Nelson to follow his footsteps as a director of productions.
“I absolutely love it,” Doering said of her role as a teacher/director.
The production starts at 7 tonight and lasts for two hours. There are tickets available and they are $8 each.
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