With the kickoff of the second semester, comes an annual tradition for LHS students and the Lynbrook community as a whole. Class Night, a 96-year-old Lynbrook tradition, is characterized as a competition between each grade in which every grade is responsible for creating a skit with numerous dances as well as corresponding art in the form of a banner, box, and scenery. Each year, the senior class is given the responsibility of selecting a category for all of the skits to be based off of and a figurative theme that each skit must successfully showcase by the end of the 20 minutes they have to perform.
The process of choosing the category first starts with the elected senior chairpersons. This year’s chairpersons, Alayna Matern and Zachary Buxton, proposed an idea and shared it with the chairpersons of the other grades in order to come to an agreed upon answer. The category chosen for this year’s Class Night was ‘80s movies with a figurative theme of “the friends we make along the way.” The freshmen chose to create a rendition of Batman (1989); the sophomores, The Goonies; the juniors, Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi; and the seniors, Back to the Future. Buxton commented that despite skepticism regarding the theme, “I feel like everyone came to appreciate what it meant to the senior class.”
When asked how she felt about this year’s Class Night theme and category, freshman class chairperson Maya Roditi shared that she liked this year’s category because “it could be built up differently with ideas and stories.” Junior class chairperson Liam Mylan agreed with Roditi noting that, “I was a fan of this year’s theme and category because the ‘80s aspect of it made it familiar to the audience,” additionally sharing that, “the category was so fun to do because ‘80s movies are classics that everyone can be creative with.” Junior class chairperson Peyton Leighley shared an additional experience with this year’s theme noting that, “This year’s theme was challenging as the last two years as chair we’ve only done animated movies,” continuing to explain how “it was more difficult for art due to having to draw real people, but our grade did very well and was successful.” Leighley also noted the immense pressure that this year’s category placed on each grade’s shoulders since all movies that were chosen were considered “classics.”
With an audience of mostly adults who are familiar with most if not all the movies, it made creating a rendition of the movies even more difficult. Each grade wanted to add twists to the original plot of the movie to make their skits interesting but “didn’t want to mess up the classics in any way.” Leighley also shared that since many students did not know a ton of ‘80s movies, she and her co-chairperson Liam Mylan “needed to take into consideration something that our grade was familiar with so no one was lost and people understood what we were doing.”
Principal Matthew Sarosy supported this year’s category sharing that “I thought it was nostalgic, which the audience enjoys, and also different because it went away from the usual animated skits.” Senior class chairperson Zachary Buxton commented on this year’s theme saying that the aspect he liked most about it was “how it appealed to everyone in Lynbrook.” Buxton continued,”The older folks got to watch interpretations of movies from when they were kids, and the younger generations just got to enjoy the stories in a new and interesting way, with modern humor and references.”
When asked if they thought the category and theme were a success, Roditi, Leighley, Mylan, Buxton, and Sarosy all agreed that it was. Mylan said, “I thought that the theme was extremely successful this year because all grades were able to make funny and similar skits that the audience enjoyed.” Mylan continued, “Everyone was so creative with the theme, and it was portrayed well by all grades.”
