By Clare Aman

Starting in October, the Junior girls worked tirelessly to create the performance known as Brunch, a show performed annually by the Junior girls for the Senior girls. This performance happens on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving break in November every year. The process of creating Brunch is long and time-consuming, starting with the theme, which is chosen the previous spring.

Junior girls meet in Oates before Brunch.

Last May, a majority of the girls in the class of 2026 met in the dance studio and spent around an hour brainstorming ideas for the theme. Near the end of the meeting, we had come up with over 50 theme ideas. After narrowing it down using a blind voting process, we were finally able to decide on one. 

From there, different committees are assigned. There are 13 total committees, and every girl is required to be on a committee with a specific job in creating Brunch. Some of these include script, dance, traditions, props, decorations, and many more.

On top of this, two co-chairs are chosen to be in charge of overseeing all of the various committees. This year the Brunch co-chairs were Madelyn Morgan (‘26) and Maddy Privasky (‘26). 

Directors are also selected, and the committee description document states that their job is to “work with the script committee to make their script come to life.” They also block scenes and work alongside the co-chairs. This year, the directors are Hollyn Borich (‘26), Leah Johnston (‘26), and Jane Simkin (‘26), who all have theater experience and could help all of the actors understand how Oates Theater runs.

The cast of Brunch 2024.

Next comes the creation of the script, which starts as early as June. The script committee meets several times over the course of the summer to come up with characters, craft scenes, and write jokes. The script needs to have enough characters for a majority of the girls to have speaking roles, which means over 60 characters in total. 

Besides the main characters that pertain to the theme, the script has funny references to other TV shows and movies, music artists, social media sensations, and inside jokes about local locations, such as St. Christopher’s and El Caporal. 

Meanwhile, choreographers design complicated and distinctive dances to songs chosen by the song committee. The dances are set to upbeat music related to the theme in some way. 

Our dance committee this year had seven members: Cora Campbell (‘26), Amirah Diggs-Majid  (‘26), Clara Gould (‘26), Amelia Lansing (‘26), Clara Totten (‘26), Coco Wayne (‘26), and Kyla Williams (‘26). With a total of six dances, the choreographers had their work cut out for them and spent many hours over the summer creating their pieces.

Almost all of the girls involved in Brunch are in at least one dance, but people participating in Brunch have the choice to be in up to three. In October, dancers started practicing the choreography during weekly practices in the dance studio before later moving into the theater. 

Also in October, our faculty sponsors— Upper School Spanish teacher Hannah Curley, Upper School biology teacher Caroline Riina, and Upper School French teacher Laurel Maughan—hold auditions to assign roles to the Junior girls. Over one week, auditions take place in classrooms before school, where actors read for the parts that they want while the sponsors take notes. The faculty members then meet to decide on parts.

Ian Hawke steals the Senior girls’ presents.

Once the decisions are finalized, a spreadsheet is shared with the Junior girls revealing the roles, and the real rehearsals start. By this time, all of the practices are in Oates, often from around 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. These continue to take place each week leading up to the final performance.

Many of the committees dive into their responsibilities in the fall. The costume committee must make a document with pictures and links to the various clothes and accessories needed to complete all of the costumes. The props committee finds or creates all of the items that characters have to hold and interact with on stage.

This year, Rita Taylor (‘26) created our program, which featured intricate drawings of each main character and a list of the names of actors and their parts. Though it is a laborious process, this only begins to cover all of the hard work that the committees put into the production of Brunch.

Overall, the experience of producing and performing Brunch is one that the Junior girls will never forget. Riley Savedge (‘26) said her favorite part was “creating a closer bond with our grade and making something everyone will enjoy.” Grace Boak (‘26) said she loved, “having the freedom to be creative and work together as a grade.”

As the days wound down and we got closer to the performance, Senior girls grew more and more curious about what the theme might be. A week before the performance, I asked around the school to find out what everyone was thinking. Anne Randall Berkeyheiser (‘25) said that she thought the theme would be Inside Out, which was a common suspicion among Senior girls, since the movie Inside Out 2 came out over the summer.

Upper School biology teacher Rachel Barker and Lily Stanwix (‘25) both believed that the theme would be Barbie. The Fake Theme committee takes on the difficult job of doing little things to try and trick students into thinking the theme is something that it is not. For example, after one of our rehearsals, we left a prop of the character “Forky” from Toy Story in the drama classroom for Middle School students to find.

When the morning of Brunch finally came on Nov. 27, girls eagerly waited in their respective hallways while the Juniors rushed to bring them into the theater. After a few minutes of excitement and dancing in Oates, the show began. 

The fake themes that were in the show included High School Musical, Descendants, Inside Out, and The Incredibles. After a “riff off” between each character group, the theme was revealed as Alvin and the Chipmunks, who had the job of keeping the presents safe for the Senior girls. Addison Barnes (‘26) played Alvin, Caroline Benjamin (‘26) played Simon, and Emory DeGunther (‘26) played Theodore.

Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

As the three chipmunks worked to protect the Senior girls’ presents from the villain, Ian Hawke, played by me, they ran into many memorable side characters, such as JoJo Siwa, played by Finley Wittkamp (‘26), and Clara Gould (‘26). In the end, the Chipmunks successfully reclaimed the presents and saved Christmas for the Seniors! 

The experience of Brunch for me was extremely enjoyable. I had a great time learning about acting, an activity that I had always wanted to try but never gotten the opportunity to before. It was challenging, and it pushed me outside my comfort zone to perform in front of so many people, but I am so glad that I did it. My mother, Ada-Marie Aman, said “I loved seeing you and your friends having fun up there.” The bond that Brunch creates within the Junior class is amazing to see. 

All photos by Taylor Dabney.