By Natalie Swanson ’13 and Jeffrey Frankel ’13, Arts & Entertainment Editors

The intense battle between Cody Reid-Dodick and Nick Williams began on September 25, when the IB/Advanced Acting class performed at morning meeting. The students mimicked a debate between the two presidential candidates: Governor Mitt Romney and incumbent President Barack Obama. In traditional IB Acting fashion, the performers employed comedy and satire with Cody Reid-Dodick ‘13, playing Romney. He walked on stage with the opening number from The Book of Mormon playing in the background, while Nick Williams ‘13, playing Obama, made his entrance with The Lion King’s “Circle of Life.” The debate ensued, with pauses dispersed for the supporting actors to read aloud mock Facebook comments regarding the event and their own fabricated political views. Mrs. Rayna Lifson, faculty advisor for the Young Democrats club and IB Economics teacher explained, “Educated humor that combines a sense of students’ lives and the outside world is awesome.” Mrs. Lifson encourages all perspectives, and has actually offered to advise the Young Republicans as well. She added, “It combined two of my great loves: politics and theatre.  It was at least as good as an SNLskit, and I could not be more impressed with the students.”

Getting into character required the actors to watch YouTube videos of the presidential candidates to understand their mannerisms. Emma Brown ’13, member of the Newark Academy Young Republicans Club, praised Reid-Dodick on “[having] the awkward stiffness of Romney down.” She thought that the scene was funny and lighthearted. When I talked to Clara Mooney ’13, a student in the class and one of the Facebook “commenters” in the skit, she explained that the class “came up with the idea of social media because we didn’t want to alienate anyone.” She later discussed the steps taken towards creating the scenes: “We [improvised] some scenes and [kept] what work[ed].”

To present the potentially contentious skit without offending anyone, the class had many conversations about how it should be performed. “The class made sure we were sensitive about how the performance could be viewed,” Cody Reid-Dodick ‘13 explained. “We were trying to make fun of the ridiculousness of people crossing the line.” If anything, the performance didn’t even focus on the debate between the two politicians; instead those interrupting the “debate” with social media twaddle took the front seat and drove the comedy of the sketch.

Mr. Bitler, advisor to the Young Republicans club, applauded the presentation. “It [made] fun of the candidates,” he explained, “and it was classy.” Additionally, he commented that he would have liked to see the morning meeting skit touch on real issues even more.

The general consensus of the student body was that the morning meeting skit did not cross any boundaries. Both sides of the political spectrum found the performance lighthearted and comical. The IB Acting Class pleased the audience with their performance, and integrated outside issues into Newark Academy’s morning meeting.