Pegasus Productions Educates Performers, Audiences with Our Town

When Pegasus Production Company sees an opportunity to further educate both their students and audiences, they capitalize on it.

The 2025 fall dramatic production of Our Town presented the cast and crew with complex messages, so company director Mr. Marcos Orozco ‘01 made a point to challenge his performers beyond the stage. 

“We quickly realized that our high school students struggled to connect to the messages that we as directors saw so clearly,” Orozco said. “After a few conversations, it was clear that the students' limited life experiences held them back from these connections. We found ways to draw parallels to their high school experience as a more relatable ‘life’ to reflect on.”

The faculty directors had the students make pointed efforts to observe their surroundings and take moments for personal reflection. They would then come together as a company and discuss what they were noticing.

“They spent time as a cast noticing aspects about each other and talking about the future and things they would miss,” Orozco said. “Overall, the mindset of the students is what shares the message of the show. They need to spend their time on stage moving and acting with intention, while also convincing the audience that they had let all this emotion go by the end of the play.”

In a storyline that took audiences through early life, love & marriage, and finally, death & eternity, the student performers were tasked with displaying a wide-range of feelings on stage. 

Junior Vincent Armenti, who played George Gibbs, was surprised by how much he learned about himself and others during this production.

“Our Town was quite the educational experience for me and I’d say most of Pegasus,” Armenti said. “A pre-show activity we would do every show night was talk about something we noticed in our day and this really resonated with me. I realized so many things I didn’t give enough appreciation to and I sure do plan on changing that now.”

Pegasus used Our Town as a way to connect theater with the classroom through CBA’s English Department. In fact, AP English courses used the novel as a centerpiece of the first quarter, before attending the show as a whole group when Pegasus produced a special school day show. 

Orozco and assistant director Mrs. Gina Morisano even visited English classes to discuss with students the ins and outs of the production.

“It was very special to get to perform the work for these students, taking the lessons out of the classroom and putting them on the stage,” Orozco said. “The multifaceted approach led to a well-rounded and deeper understanding of the play and its themes.”