Del Norte High puts own spin on ‘The Breakfast Club’

Del Norte High School’s drama department is putting an original, Nighthawks-inspired spin on the 1985 coming-of-age film “The Breakfast Club.”

The student-written production “Barely the Breakfast Club” can be seen at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13 and 20 plus Saturday, Oct. 14 and 21 in the Del Norte High School Performing Arts Center, 16601 Nighthawk Lane in 4S Ranch. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Purchase at the door or in advance at tix.dntheatre.com.

Due to thematic elements and mild language the play is rated PG-13, said Director Stephanie DeYoung, explaining the teenage characters deal with real-life issues, but the script is “not as dark” as the movie.

DeYoung said her students have been talking about putting on “The Breakfast Club” for a few years, but with its rights not available, she decided a way to do something similar was to write a play with the movie as inspiration, but to make it very Del Norte-specific. She wrote a “skeleton script” during the summer, but after casting the show let the students change it so that “it is more their story and less mine. It has an authentic student voice and less of a teacher voice.”

Though the movie came out 32 years ago, she said most of her students have seen the John Hughes film about a group of high school students spending a Saturday in detention. They come from various cliques, but over the course of the day realize they have some things in common as they reveal problems they face at home and among their peers.

In Del Norte’s version the present-day is contrasted with segments of the movie since one of the students is an aspiring filmmaker who says what he is seeing happen around him during the campus’ Friday detention is familiar, but he cannot quite figure out that his peers are “figuratively living ‘The Breakfast Club,’” DeYoung said.

“Del Norte strives to be an inclusive school, so it does not ascribe to strong stereotypes, but that is not to say there are not stereotypes (on campus),” she said. “They still float around, but ... at Del Norte (the students) find a peace that is totally different because their commonality binds (them) as human beings.”

DeYoung said this is her first time advising students as they write a full-length play and the biggest challenge was getting 18 students to agree on the story of what they wanted to tell.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their work and I am really proud of it,” she said. “It was a labor of love. ... It has been a very collaborative process.”

DeYoung said with this being her fourth year as a teacher at Del Norte doing this play this year is especially meaningful because this year’s seniors are the first class she has seen grow up during all four years of high school. She referred to the play as “a rite of passage” and said it “is the capstone of my time with them.”

The cast is predominantly made up of juniors and seniors, with five underclassmen cast as understudies. They will take the stage during this Saturday’s performance and fill-in, if needed, at other shows.

The cast members are Pyper Abrigo, Andrew Alexander, Jordan Dixon, Hercules Hall, Audrey Linton, Camron Manesis, Caleb Maranian, Lily Marx, Bennie Mortensen, Sammy Nafez, Rayan Paul and Nicky Sugiarto. The understudies are Katie Chohan, Carly Jennings, Mak Lincoln, Arli Lorett and Ashley Reed.

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