When Emilie Morton was younger, she can recall being obsessed with the cartoon character Dora the Explorer.
“Just like her, I wanted to explore,” said Morton, 17, a junior at Yough Senior High School.
That made it easy to channel a young person’s excitement and desire to emulate their heroes in her role as Shirley Holmes in the school’s spring play, “If Sherlock Holmes Were a Woman.”
Morton’s character, named for the famous detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sees her big chance to be Sherlock Holmes when the threatening housemother of her women’s dorm is found dead under peculiar circumstances.
Shirley locks the entire cast in the communal study and proceeds to “solve” the crime over the course of 30 comedy-filled minutes.
Director Kyla Yencik said she was hoping to stage a musical this spring, but with no male students auditioning and a cast of only seven, things needed to be scaled back.
“It’s a shorter show than we wanted to do, but it’s great watching the kids develop onstage,” Yencik said.
Junior Riley Doran, 16, plays Fifi, a French exchange student learning the English language. Doran said she’s spent hour watching YouTube videos to try to shape her French accent.
“The toughest part is keeping it consistent,” she said. “But it’s great getting back into live theater after two years of not having it.”
Sophomore Kayla Fillar is getting familiar with the stage itself: After playing a character who faints last time she was onstage, Fillar will be back on the floor shortly after the curtains go up, playing the dead dorm housemother.
“It’s just really great to be here and have fun,” Fillar said.
This will be Yencik’s first time directing a production, and said she’s keeping a close eye on all “the little things.”
“Lights, sound, and that type of stuff,” she said. “There’s a lot more to it thank you initially think.”
“If Sherlock Holmes Were a Woman” will be performed at 7 p.m. April 29-30 at the senior high school, 919 Lowber Road in Sewickley Township. Tickets are $10 at the door.
