Many student actors rehearse their lines over and over again to prepare for a show. However, that won’t be the case this year since the fall play will be “Small Mouth Sounds,” a primarily silent play. The play will be performed on Thursday, Oct. 27, Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. in the studio theater.

The play consists of six different characters who are attending a silent retreat in hopes of finding a fix for the struggles they are going through. There is a seventh character who is a narrator who the audience members will hear the entire time but not see.

The choice for this play is different from previous years. English teacher Tiffany Rubin, the director of the play, wanted it to rely heavily on facial expressions, something that wasn’t there last year.

“Last time I did one of the plays, we were still masked up, so the possibility of showing facial expression was completely removed. This is a play that literally could not be done with masks,” Rubin said.

Rubin expresses her thoughts on what this play would mean for the audience when compared to the time with COVID.

“I think this play is really cool because I think that everybody in the last three years has been through some sort of personal trauma or they’ve dealt with a lot of challenges. This is almost like the characters are going through this catharsis in therapy on stage and I think the audience can identify with what they are seeing,” Rubin said.

Acting with facial expressions is a new challenge that the cast has to face this year. Junior Gianna Caponigro comments on the adjustments she has to make to her acting style since talking is limited in the play.

“COVID was a really big thing just because in theater you’re supposed to be on a stage and performing with facial expressions in front of an audience. We didn’t have that, and we used our voice to convey so many different emotions,” Caponigro said.

Caponigro also shares how COVID has affected the cast as a whole and that despite the challenges, it brought them together and strengthened the theater department.

“We [the cast members] have a really good relationship with one another. We’ve been through a lot together and it’s nice to finally be together to perform theater the way it’s supposed to be performed,” Caponigro said.