BY JENNY SEJANSKY
DeLand High School’s Hill Street Theatre is proud to announce its first show of the 2024-25 season. On Wednesday-Friday, Oct. 2-4, at 7 p.m. all nights, the auditorium stage will be filled with the excitement and chaos of Jeffrey Hatcher’s comedic adaptation of Miss Nelson is Missing!, based on the book by Harry Allard and James Marshall.
We have two casts for this production who will perform on alternate nights.
Miss Nelson (played by Mars Torres and Chloee Dejarnette) is a young, sweet first-year teacher who is simply too nice to manage her rowdy, unruly second-grade class (Jarrell Rodriguez, Carter Shaw, Keith Schulze, Samuel Lopez Rosado, Jacob Reller, Xavier Soto-Colon, Aiyannah Anderson, Stevie Christofore, Kate Budzinski, Genesis Cheeseborough, Caira Mangrum and Scarlette Fernandez).
Although adorable and only 7 years old, these students are disrespectful, mean-spirited, spoiled and unmanageable. As the dreaded end-of-the-year test these students are woefully unprepared for looms in the distance, Miss Nelson is confronted by Principal Humleker (Rocky Good, Bella Zalivin), who questions whether she is suited to be a good teacher or not. We never really get to find out, as the very next day of school, her students learn that Miss Nelson has gone missing and has been replaced by the evil Miss Swamp (Evey Flatley, Cydney Diaz)!
Miss Swamp is the opposite of Miss Nelson. She is mean, loud and homework-happy! The children are terrified of Miss Swamp and demand to find out what happened to Miss Nelson. Maybe hiring Detective McSmogg (Luis Caquias, Harrison Ithier-Brana) can help them figure things out!
When that proves to be useless, the children take the lead and do their own investigation. What they learn is how to start listening to each other, to respect their differences, use proper grammar and realize how horrible they were to Miss Nelson! Now, they would do anything to get her back! But is it too late?
Join us as we present this family-friendly comedy selected for children ages 7-75! Tickets will be available at the door and in advance on the Go Fan app on the school’s website. Tickets cost $6 for students, $11 for adults and $4 for middle-school and elementary-school students. We hope to see you there!
Miss Nelson Is Missing! will be performed in the DeLand High School Auditorium, 800 N. Hill Ave.
