If COVID-19 has been playing the role of a villain with the plan to wipe out all activities for Bridgeport High School Theatre, the plan failed.

 

In fact, the hero of this story would have every right to shout, “Missed it by that much.”

 

That’s just one of the many catchphrases likely to be said during the BHS Theatre's upcoming performance of Get Smart, which is based on the 1960s sitcom by the same name starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, a spy for the fictional agency CONTROL.

 

The presentation will be unique as it will be available to view via streaming at 7 p.m. on May 8-9.

 

 To receive access to the streaming link, interested individuals may visit the school cash online link below to make a donation to our theater program.  All donations will be used to offset costs of the play for the theatre program. Each donation will receive a link to stream the play.

 

Visit:

 

https://hcschools.schoolcashonline.com/Fee/Index

 

Then search "Get Smart"

 

“We’ve never done anything like this before,” play director Trina Byard said. “It’s pretty interesting. It will be fun.

 

“I’m excited, I’m happy that we were able to have this opportunity for the students. Some of those kids who are graduating have been with us since middle school. They are like our own kids now. We’re sad we didn’t get to do the big musicals they were all hopeful for their senior year, but at least they are getting to do theater.”

 

BHS Theatre was riding high in the spring of 2020 with an award-winning one act show Elephant’s Graveyard poised to make an appearance at the state thespian festival and a musical, Seussical: the Musical just getting ready to open at the high school.

 

This was right before the COVID-19 pandemic took over and started canceling everything in its path.

 

The cancelations, postponements and ever-changing guidelines kept piling up for BHS theatre until a ray of light emerged and it looked like a senior play, with restrictions, would be a possibility.

 

The possibility turned to reality and after some long, hard hours of work by a dedicated group of seniors, Get Smart is ready for an audience, even if it is not an in-person audience.

 

“We decided to put together a senior show that for the time in BHS history would not be a musical,” Byard said. “With the unpredictable COVID school schedule and not knowing whether we may be able to have a live audience or not, the idea of a straight play that we would then film and stream was born. We were going to make a move, and we did just that.

 

“Doing the video, making the film I think that they had a lot of fun with that. There were long, tiring days because we had to shoot the scenes at multiple camera angles and so there was a lot of footage to edit the best show together.

 

“What the community will see if they choose to watch it will be more like a TV show than just filming the state of a play. It’s going to be more up close. The two boys that edited this together have done an amazing job.”

 

The film editing was done by Brett Tustin and Zayne Byard.

 

The cast didn’t completely miss out on the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience as they have performed it in front of the entire senior class at BHS in addition to a special show for the cast’s households.

 

Byard said although Get Smart is entertaining, that wasn’t the only factor that led to its selection.

 

“We wanted to do a play that we were allowed to record and stream it,” Byard said. “And with Get Smart we were. We took a survey to see if kids were interested in doing a play, I looked at how many were interested, what we had to work with. Get Smart worked best with the amount of students we had to work with.

 

“The play was written to have 27 students with 17 being female and 10 being male. We had a lot of females and a few boys express interest and a few females willing to play male characters.

 

“I read the script and it was entertaining, it was comical. The script is a mashup of the first two episodes of Season 1 of the TV show. We were able to incorporate some of Don Adams’ quirks into the script through ad libbing.

 

Byard said the streaming performance may even include a version of the TV show’s iconic opening credit sequence.

 

The full cast list for Get Smart can be seen below.

 

GET SMART CAST LIST

Maxwell Smart: Wesley Cotter

Professor Dante: Jason Fraley

Professor Zalinka: Meagan Hutcheson

Agent 44: Nevin Wetzel

Chief: Ava Wagner

Miss Finch: Isabella Cecil

Hodgkins: Landon Burns

Garth: Brett Tustin

Mary Wong: Emma Dotson

Shirley Wong: Olivia Ferguson

Betsy Wong:  Rachel Morgan

Mr. Big: Jazmyn Burgess

Agent 99: Corrine Yurkovich

Agent 13: Jason Fraley

Ann: Dayna Adkins

Jill: Abby Morrison

May: Sarah Sprouse

Laura: Dakota Swiger

Princess Ingrid: Madison Chumley

Helen: Madison Chumley

Myra: Alex Chumley

Jane: Laney Seech

Fred: Landon Burns

Man:  Nevin Wetzel

Woman:  Meagan Hutcheson

Little Sister:  Dakota Swiger

Big Sister: Alex Chumley