Murder on the dance floor

“A prom and then a reunion: a murder mystery,” Aparajita Srivastava ’25 said, explaining the overarching theme of Upper School (US) Spanish Teacher Rosario Sánchez Gómez’s Spanish V Honors play.

 Performed on March 13 in the Lindberg-Serries Theater, the play was a culmination of preparation that began in early February. The Spanish V Honors students told the story of a student who was mistakenly framed for murder after his secret admirer killed his prom date out of jealousy. The plot was a fusion of creative class-wide ideas, Aparajita said.

 “I suggested that if we were doing couples, we should do tropes: ‘The couple that’s obsessed with each other,’ ‘the couple that’s kind of toxic and hates each other,’ and ‘the cousins who can’t find dates.’” 

 With her Ph.D. dissertation done on Spanish theater staging in the 20th century, Dr. Sánchez Gómez launched the first annual Spanish V Honors plays in 2013 to keep students engaged during the second trimester and prevent “senioritis.” For the third time in 13 years, Dr. Sánchez Gómez stepped into the spotlight alongside her students and played the character Romina, the prom date killed at the beginning of the murder mystery. 

 “They needed me because it was couples and they were lacking a girl,” she said. “I didn’t want to be in the whole play because it’s not for me to perform, but they needed a girl, and somebody had to be killed, so it was an easy way to do it.”

 While the process of creating an entire play and having to rehearse as a group can be stressful for students, watching everything come together on the final afternoon is the most rewarding part of the project, Dr. Sánchez Gómez said.

 “It’s the perfect ending to Spanish V Honors in March before Senior Spring Projects.”

—Matthew Walsh ’26

Love Island ‘en español’

 A live dating show for high school students? Not quite. The dating show was part of “Tú, Otra Vez” (“You, Again”), a play performed by Upper School (US) Spanish Teacher Ana María Valle’s Spanish V Honors class. Niyam Badani ’25, clad in a wig and dress, began the play as Antonella, the hostess of a dating show with eight contestants. The script’s several plot twists led to laughter from the audience.

 Although Profe Valle was away during the performance, she observed that her students enjoyed putting together the play, she said.

 “The objective of us as teachers was to provide this environment for them to conclude their journey, and this was accomplished,” she said. “Each performer develops their own personality traits and particular interests in the play.”

 Profe. Valle emphasized the value of students attending the play and appreciating Hispanic culture, she said.

 “Even if they don’t understand every word, they can still enjoy the music, dances and overall performance of their schoolmates.”

“The goal of learning Spanish is truly to be able to use it in the real world. The more you practice conversational speaking, the further you will get in your mastery of the language.”

— Niyam Badani ’25

 In an ending full of surprises, Niyam revealed that he was not actually Antonella but Antonio, a man whom all the contestants knew and were madly in love with. Urged by the contestants to choose a partner, Niyam presented flowers to audience member Hale McGivern ’25.

 Niyam derived inspiration from past Spanish V Honors plays.

 “I remember being a freshman in there, watching and thinking, ‘That’s what I can do when I’m older. That’s the level of Spanish I could speak at,” he said. “The goal of learning Spanish is truly to be able to use it in the real world. The more you practice conversational speaking, the further you will get in your mastery of the language.”

—Vartan Arakelian ’26