The ABIS drama club hosted the play 13 Jr. on December 12th, 13th, and 14th. Tickets are available now at only 5 dollars! After months of practice, the ABIS drama club has made an amazing production that everyone was excited to see.

13 Jr. is about a boy named Evan having his bar mitzvah in a completely new town due to his parents’ divorce, where he becomes friends with his bookworm neighbor, Patrice. At his party, he wishes to invite all the popular kids in his new school, and struggles with the idea of being popular or being his true self. The play stars Paul Antonelli as Evan, Julia Strauss as Patrice, Michael Jimenez as Archie, Victor Orzol as Brett, Sophia Monge as Lucy, and Ella Weston as Kendra.

“I always loved Jason Robert Brown, the composer of this musical,” says Alexa Lucchesse, the director of the show. “There was never a middle school version of the show until 2024. When I saw that the show was available, I immediately knew that this was the show I wanted to do.”

Lucchesse also states that this year was quite competitive when it came to auditions for the show: “Jason Robert Brown is really hard to perform vocally, and we were looking for a classical theatre belt. During callbacks, the kids really impressed me with their comedic timing.”

Once the cast was made, the kids immediately began to practice in the third week of September. Students practiced daily from 3-5pm, and in the first week of December their work finally paid off.

“Tech week” is when the cast and crew rehearse the show with costumes, lights, props, and microphones. Miss Lucchesse states that Tech Week is “always stressful,” although the actors were solid on their performance and showed improvement by trying new things, not plateauing, and excelling throughout each run through of the show, making it a successful week.