MPISD – News

Cast members (left to right) Ashanti Presley, Sadera Lampard, Dani Palomo, and Nayeli Rivera rehearse a scene from Finding Claire.

Contact: Kelly Cowan

MPHS Theatre announces the first production of the 2022-2023 season

The MPHS Rough Theatre Company presents Kim Merrill’s Finding Claire on September 8, 13, and 15 in the Studio Theatre in the Mount Pleasant High School Performing Arts Center. The play begins at 6:30 p.m. and features Ashanti Presley as Rachel, Nayeli Rivera as Clair, Dani Palomo as Bridget, and Sadera Lampard as Lilly.

The play takes theatergoers along for the roller-coaster ride that a woman might go through in meeting her biological mother for the first time. After the sudden death of her adoptive mother, a wealthy New York City dancer embarks on a search for her birth mother’s home. She longs for a family connection but ends up with a family crisis. In an impoverished farmhouse in rural upstate New York, her fifteen-year-old half-sister is pregnant—and wants to give up her baby. Her mother—a stubborn, introverted woman who carves rough rock sculptures as a way to express her frustrations—wants her to keep it. Her grandmother wants to be the boss.

Armed with good intentions and a desire to help her new family, the dancer arrives at their door. But, when she’s met with a volatile mixture of envy, regret, and resentment, her assumptions about identity, biological ties, and what it “means” to be a mother are turned upside down.

In addition, the company will be presenting Alice In Wonderland on November 15 and 17. It is a production of the 1970 play presented by The Manhattan Project and is a darker version of the Lewis Carroll classic. They will also enter it into this year’s UIL One Act Play competition.

Tickets for Finding Claire are $5. Admission for children under 10 is free when accompanied by an adult. Seating is limited in the Studio Theatre, and audience members should call 903-380-4196 for reservations. MPHS Theatre is under the direction of Dr. Edward Lee.