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Burbank High School Drama Dept. Presents “The 39 Steps” and Welcomes a New Director!

The Burbank High School Drama Department is excited to present its fall play The 39 Steps and very happy to welcome the department's new Director of Theater, Anne Terry.

Graduating from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in Theater, Terry comes to Burbank High School afters spending17 years working in different capacities at Beverly Hills High School – as Theater Operations Specialist, an English teacher, and a drama teacher.

She is also a founding member of The Next Arena (www.thenextarena.com), a Los Angeles based theater company, known mostly for original pieces and works adapted from literature. She is married to her “best friend” and fellow artist, and the two have three children, her “dearest creations,” Zoe, Beau, and Tyo.

“I am thrilled to join a school with such a great reputation in the performing arts and am looking forward to continuing the tradition of excellence,” says Terry. “I hope to bring some new ideas and allow the students to experience an assortment of performance opportunities, including experimental theater and musical theater.”

First on Terry's docket is this year's fall play, The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit, which mixes Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece with a juicy spy novel – and a dash of Monty Python, for good measure.

The play follows a man who is entirely bored with his life, until he meets an intriguing woman. She tells him she’s a spy, but when he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organization called “The 39 Steps” is hot on the man’s trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale.

Set Designer and BHS' Stagecraft Teacher Karen Broderick once again has designed amazing sets with the help of student technicians. Students are also involved in the show's choreography, and there will be an additional presentation by a variety of performers from BHS displaying their special skills, such as acrobatics, gymnastics, juggling and more!

Terry said, “It is my goal to include the students in as many aspects of the creative process as possible, so they might discover a wide variety of roles during the course of production to enhance their understanding of all the ways we make theater come to life.”

For anyone who loves the magic of theater, The 39 Steps is packed with nonstop laughs, zany characters, an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, and some good old-fashioned romance. A riotous blend of virtuoso performances and wildly inventive stagecraft, you will have an unforgettable evening of pure pleasure!

Performances are Oct. 14 & 15, 2016 at 7PM at Burbank High School’s Wolfson Auditorium. Pre-sale tickets are available at brownpapertickets.com for $20/VIP & $10/General Admission. On campus pre-sale tickets are $5 for students. Tickets at the door are $20/VIP, $15/Adults, $10/Students, & $5/ASB.