The cast of "The Mysterious Case of the Missing Ring" (photo by Daniel Crofts)

“Terror!”

“Intrigue!”

“Romance, blooming like a lotus in the springtime…”

Entire cast in unison: “What?!?”

“Just kidding.”

There you have it — the opening lines of “The Mysterious Case of the Missing Ring," the latest play put on by the Drama Club at Batavia Middle School. The first performance took place last night.

The show was directed by Matthew Mayne, English/Drama teacher at Batavia High School, and starred 22 BMS students (grades 6-8) in a variety of comedic roles.

From a stage play written by Janie Downey Maxwell, “Missing Ring” centers around a Queen — played by 7^th grader Mica Pitcher — who has lost her royal ring and hires several competing teams of detectives to find it. All of the detectives — from the pratfall-prone, tap-dancing Oliver (Blake Carter) to the nervous, germaphobic Kat (Spencer Hubbard) — prove to be hysterically incompetent.

Mayne, who is certainly no stranger to local theater (see article about his recent Thornton Wilder production at http://tinyurl.com/yknj4bu), began work on the production of "Missing Ring" in late September. He took Maxwell’s play and made of it an opportunity for everyone involved to bring his/her own ideas to the performance.

"We added a lot to this,” Mayne said. “I added some characters that weren’t in the original script. That’s good for me as a director, because then the story has more characters to work with. And it’s good for the kids, because there are more roles available and they can add their own personal touches to the overall performance.”

Additionally, there were numerous jokes and humorous bits that were not in the script.  Mayne said the students “came up with a lot of ideas and put so much of their own unique humor into it.”

In so doing, they drew plentiful laughter from the audience.

Thursday night’s performance was well performed and well received, but the production was far from easy. Because of his extracurricular duties at BHS, Mayne could only devote three days a week to rehearsals. So with a total of only 20 rehearsals, the cast had to exercise a great deal of dedication in order to make the play work.

If this weren’t enough, a number of students became ill during the course of production and had to quit the play. There was even a last-minute cancellation the night before the performance, forcing one of the cast members to learn new lines overnight.

“I’m amazed at how much the kids care about the show,” Mayne said. “They really pulled themselves together.”

The play also featured set designs made by BMS teacher Lucille DiSanto and BMS students Riley Cole, Megan Draper and Kayla Gannon.

“Missing Ring” will have one more performance, this time intended exclusively for BMS students, faculty and staff; this will take place during the school day Monday.

An automatic general fire alarm has been tripped at Batavia Middle School, 96 Ross St.

Engine 12 is responding.

UPDATE 7:47 a.m.: There was a problem with a relief valve on a water tank. All clear.

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A former Batavia Middle School teacher is being honored by the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association as a Distinquished Alumni of the Year.

Rosa LaSorte Rich, currently living in Brockport, taught at the school from 1973 to 1989.

Richard Boardman, a 1963 SUNY Brockport graduate who met her in 1959 as one of his class advisors and has since followed with admiration her professional and volunteer career.

“I can’t come up with one special act or accomplishment, because there are many, but the success of each was the result of the accumulation of the smaller, day-to-day positive contributions she makes, which are necessary to make individuals and society better,” Boardman wrote in his nomination letter.

BATAVIA, N.Y. — On March 12, Batavia Middle School's eighth-graders will listen to a powerful and emotional story of what it was like for Henry Silberstern to experience the Holocaust at the age of 14 and later be married by the rabbi who liberated him at the end of the war.

Boonie Abrams, Director at the Center for Holocaust Awareness and Information in Rochester, said these lectures are so important for today's eighth-graders because they will likely be the last generation to hear the living survivors speak.

"The survivors who speak will tell kids: You are the next generation; you will be in charge of creating a world where perhaps genocide will disappear," said Abrams.

Silberstern is the only person out of his 54 relatives to survive the Holocaust. Out of the 15,000 boys who came through Terezin, only 150 survived the Holocaust, Silberstern being one of them.

Abrams said most of the survivors lost their parents and some or all of their siblings. She said eighth-graders are old enough to understand this, and young enough to imagine the pain of the loss.

"Sometimes, kids leave these presentations with renewed love and affection for the siblings they fight with and the parents they get mad at," said Abrams.

The emotional impact varies with each student. Abrams said Silberstern speaks in a "matter of fact" way. He explains that this was life as he knew it.

There is a positive influence on students who hear a survivor's story, and studies prove it.

"Studies of students who heard survivor testimony have shown that a higher number of these students go into helping fields or programs designed to bring relief to areas of the world where there is a lot of suffering," said Abrams.

It is important for students to share these stories with others.

"In thirty years, when there is no one left who remembers the Holocaust, and Holocaust deniers say, "It never happened," today's eighth-graders, now middle-aged adults will say, "Yes there was, I met someone who lived through it, and I am a witness to their experience," said Abrams.

She said even those students who dread the lecture for fear it will upset them or even bore them are usually riveted by hearing a survivor speak.

"And the impact lasts a lifetime," said Abrams.

Images courtesy of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo.