Birthday cakes, dinner dates and office dynamics in EPHS Drama’s ‘Trajectories’

Forty-one years ago, 11 students at Eden Prairie High School (EPHS) approached the theater director at the time with a script for a show that they wanted to find a way to produce. The director’s response was very simple.

“OK, let’s just put a show on.”

This declaration served as the humble beginning of “Trajectories,” a decades-running show at EPHS that features skits and dances that are completely student-produced. The 41st edition of “Trajectories” will run at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, and Friday, Sept. 5, in the EPHS Performing Arts Center.

Jay Asfeld, the performing arts center manager at Eden Prairie Schools who oversees “Trajectories,” said the process to put the show on lasts most of the summer. Students submit scripts and dance ideas to him by July 1, and he hand-selects the ones that will get produced.

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Then, Asfeld and the students work to polish and organize the program before auditions in early August. Differing from other EPHS productions, “Trajectories” is a no-cut show, which means that anyone who auditions will be in it.

“It’s kind of a niche, nice thing for the end of the summer for kids to kind of get geared up for the school year and kind of get back into that mindset of doing theater, both acting and behind the scenes,” Asfeld said.

This year, “Trajectories” will feature six student-choreographed dances and nine student-written-and-directed skits. About 30 students worked on the show, both on stage and behind the scenes, according to Asfeld.

Dances will range from a “High School Musical” mashup to a Spanish partner dance, “Piel Canela,” to a Prince medley. The skits also vary widely, including “The Phone,” a theater-of-the-absurd piece about two monkeys trying to stop a ringing phone; “Melancholia,” a story about a woman reconciling with life after World War I; and “Underworked and Overstressed,” a tongue-in-cheek comedy set in an atypical office.

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One of the skits, written and directed by EPHS sophomore Laney Olson, is “Red Velvet and Lemon Meringue,” a classic whodunit about a birthday cake that goes missing at a party. Olson, who often writes fiction in her spare time and once created plays for her younger cousins, said this was her first time directing on such a large scale.

“But besides (those plays when I was younger), I’ve never really directed anything before so I kind of went off learning what other directors have done for me,” Olson said.

Olson was also involved in “Trajectories” last year as a freshman at EPHS after participating in theater throughout middle school. She decided to continue in high school and auditioned for the show after encouragement from a former classmate. Last year, she appeared in one skit and a few dances; this year, she’s in five dances and directing “Red Velvet and Lemon Meringue.”

Olson said this year’s “Trajectories” gave her the chance to explore the writing and directing side of theater, an opportunity she otherwise wouldn’t have had.

“Things like directing and writing stuff isn’t something you get to do in a normal show and I think it’s really cool to get that experience and learn that early on in high school,” Olson said. “It’s also a really amazing way to get into theater, whether you’re a freshman or if you’re new to it.” 

One of the core values of “Trajectories” is giving students a way to be introduced to theater and connect with others. Asfeld said the show helps students, especially freshmen, shake off the “fish out of water” feeling that comes with starting high school and meet upperclassmen and peers with similar interests.

“Coming from middle school into high school is like it’s a whole different world,” Asfeld said. “I think this gives those kids who are fresh and new an opportunity to see how our program runs, but also see that high school isn’t as scary as you think it could be, because there’s other people, there’s these other actors that you’re working with. They’ve all gone through this too.”

“Trajectories” runs Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. in the EPHS Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $5 for students and senior citizens and $7 for adults. They can be purchased online or at the door.