Jesuit High School Sacramento’s Black Box Theater creates incredible productions every year that never fail to captivate and entertain their audiences. In the fall, Jesuit held their highly anticipated play, “What?!?! A Game Show,” which was designed as an interactive world trivia game with many jokes and a light-hearted script.

This wonderfully fast-paced play had many great actors including William Lee ’22 as Bob Baxter, the host of the game show, and St. Francis senior Brooke Abildgaard as the co-host, Connie Connors. All of the actors’ bright emotions and funny responses fit their characters perfectly and created a wonderful production. 

Aran Clayton ’22, a senior in the audience, was really impressed by the play. He enjoyed the overall concept of a game show and loved how all the characters behaved. 

“I thought it was an 11/10,” Aran said. “It was entertaining, funny, and topical. It was well written, and I thought all the characters did their best. And everyone in general killed it.” 

Jesuit Drama Artistic Director Mr. Ed Trafton ’84 is extremely grateful for being able to direct a fall play and expresses his gratitude for all the support and sense of community that was created for the play. 

“Being back in the Black Box Theater was very exciting, very moving and very rewarding,”Mr. Trafton said. “We missed being with people, and it was great to get back to what theater does best: gather people together and tell stories about what it means to be human.”

“What?!?! A Game Show” was a very intricate play with twists and turns and an outstanding set design, but if you didn’t get a chance to see the play last semester, don’t worry. Mr. Trafton welcomes all to Jesuit’s Black Box Theater to watch their next show in the spring. 

This upcoming spring musical is called “HITS! Great Songs from Great Shows!,” an exciting production that incorporates some of the best songs from different popular theater productions. The production manager, Fr. Perry Petrich S.J., illustrates what the show is all about and his excitement for what’s to come.

“Think of the time that you have been at the theater and you got goosebumps,” Fr. Petrich said. “Something happened, like a musical number. What our job is for this show is to create those experiences for the audience, to give them that goosebump feeling when something transcendent happens.”

This exciting collaborative musical will mark the 55th Anniversary Season for Jesuit’s theater program, which is being called a “Season of Fun!.” Mr. Trafton further explains what this play entails and how excited he is to create such a unique production. 

“Our Spring Musical will be a revue, a live play-list of some of the greatest songs from some really great shows,” Mr. Trafton said. “I can speak for the staff when I say that we are most excited about working with this very large and very talented ensemble.”

Jesuit’s theater production does not disappoint, as seen with the fall production, and is only getting better at creating outstanding performances. The upcoming spring musical “HITS! Great Songs from Great Shows!” begins on March 11 and ends March 25, and with Jesuit’s wonderful works in the past, this musical is sure to be just as great.