Quincy HS opens ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ this weekend

QUINCY — A timeless ghost story will take the stage at Quincy High School this weekend.

“It keeps the essence of the Washington Irving tale, but it has singing, a lot of hymns, and a lot of dancing,” said Quincy High School drama teacher and director Haliey Weber. “It's a different take, but it gives the audience a sense of what life was like back then.”

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” takes place in 1790, when upstate New York was still a frontier and the United States had been independent for less than a decade. New schoolteacher Ichabod Crane (Jarrod Miller) comes to the little village of Sleepy Hollow and creates a stir among the local single ladies, particularly the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel (Emma Yeates), who snags his heart. This doesn’t sit well with Brom Bones (Owen Yeates), who also has his eye on Katrina, and Brom sets out to make Ichabod’s life miserable. One night at a party, Brom tells the story of the Headless Horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian soldier who was decapitated during the Revolutionary War. As Ichabod wends his way home, terrified of the story he’s just heard, he encounters the Headless Horseman for himself. Or does he?

Much of the story is narrated by four gossips, village girls who are also a-swoon over Brom and Ichabod, who are not necessarily to be trusted.

“They seem like normal girls at first, but under that they’re really witchy, spooky characters who add to the plot,” said Ruby Gonzalez, who plays Gossip 4.

“We’re very mysterious,” said Summer Hobson, Gossip 3. “We start the show and end the show … (The gossips) are in the story, but really they don’t fit in as much as the other characters do. (They’re) ethereal, almost like sirens.”

The dialogue in the script adaptation is mostly in verse, Weber said, which presented some challenges.

“That was hard,” Hobson said. “You really can’t miss a word; otherwise it doesn’t make sense. If you’ve watched Hamilton, you know how they kind of rap the entire show? That’s pretty much what we’re doing.”

“It’s a whole poem,” Weber said. “We’ve really had to work with the students on the meter and keeping the tension to keep the audience interested and not like we’re reciting a poem … I think it’s the most intense I’ve ever directed.”

‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’

7 p.m. Nov. 6, 7, 12 and 13

2 p.m. Nov. 7 and 14

Quincy High School Theater

403 Jackrabbit St.

Tickets: bit.ly/4egofG9

Cast

Ichabod Crane: Jarrod Miller

Brom Bones: Owen Yeates

Katrina Van Tassel: Emma Yeates

Gossip 1: Belle Rollins

Gossip 2: Jasmine Vazquez Navarro

Gossip 3: Summer Hobson

Gossip 4: Ruby Gonzalez

Dirk Vanderbilt: Jorge Salas-Ruiz

Sleepy Hollow Boy 1: Julianna Lambert

Sleepy Hollow Boy 2: Alceste Pozzi

Sleepy Hollow Boy 3: June Hobson

Hans Van Ripper: Sawyer Golay

Parson Van Pastor: Silas Hankins

Cotton Mather: Michael Pascual

Baltus Van Tassel: Daniel Sanchez

Wife Van Tassel: Aubrey Miller

Dame Van Winkle: Lilyanna Boorman

Townsfolk: Annalise Coyle, Briana Ramirez, Ella Nelson, Esmeralda Vega Garcia, Katalina Bernal

    There’s romance, chills and drama in Quincy High School’s production of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” opening Friday.