Blood Wedding
at Annandale High School

Reviewed on November 18, 2016

Helen Moreau
Lake Braddock Secondary School
Submitted for publication to Cappies News

What do Billy Joel and early 20th century Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca have in common? They both exemplify the term "Only the good die young." Lorca's play Blood Wedding showcases love and loss between a triangle of lovers and its effects on their loved ones.

First produced in 1932 in Madrid, Blood Wedding tells the tale of a tragic love story set in the Spanish countryside. The Bride (Emily Trachsel) and her former lover Leonardo (Beckman Hollis) run away together following her marriage to the Bridegroom (Jack Dalrymple). The two men find themselves confronting each other in a fit of passion, anger, and a bit of irony.

Stand out performers include Maya Koch and her emotional portrayal of the Bridegroom's Mother. Traumatized by the violent deaths of her husband and eldest son, Mother has a certain emotional depth to her that Koch captures exquisitely. Her fervent outburst to the Bride at the end of the play brought the audience to near-silence as they held onto each passionate word exchanged between the two. Savannah Gravitt (Leonardo's wife) brought a significantly softer but similarly commanding presence to the stage. Her sweet vocals and tender characterizations nicely contrasted that of the many intense characters in this play.

Excellent acting did not stop with the major characters. Holly Ramia held her own with her energetic portrayals of Mother's neighbor and the Moon. Ioana Marin brought well needed comic relief to Blood Wedding as the quirky and lively Servant to the Bride.

Technical elements of the show were also exceptional. The set, designed by Carson Binkley (who also designed the lighting), featured several rotating prisms that allowed for easier scene changes on an otherwise busy stage. Several artistic elements were also incorporated into the set design. For example, the addition of a screen painted like the rest of the prisms allowed for a very creative and unique expression of the plot via silhouettes being lit onto the screen from behind. The level of detail being put into not just the set design but properties as well, designed by William Rangel Cardozo, added to the overall realism of the setting.

The realism did not stop at the physical set. Costuming (designed by aforementioned Maya Koch) helped immerse the audience into the Spanish countryside. Period dresses and collared shirts created a sense of time in history for the play. The Bride's pure black wedding dress was stunningly beautiful. The choice of black rather than traditional white is both period appropriate and a bit of foreshadowing into the "success" of the Bride's marriage.

Perhaps the most impressive element to this particular production was the accompaniment by a live guitarist (Saad Farooq), percussionist (Zane Belkhayat) and violinists (Calvin Phung and Max Rahardjo). Featuring original compositions from Anna Castillo, the music covered the scene shifts, as well as adding an innovative and distinct element to the overall aesthetic of the show.

Blood Wedding may seem like an unorthodox choice for a high school theatre company to present, but Annandale High School made it worthwhile showing remarkable design work and acting skills.

Jessie Yu
Oakton High School
Submitted for publication to Cappies News 2

The distinction between fate and choice is not always clear, and Annandale High School's Blood Wedding blurs the line between them. In this tale of passion and pain, three families intertwined by chance are destroyed by a single decision of two forbidden lovers.


Written by Federico Garcia Lorca in 1932, the play is set in early 20th century Spain, where a widowed woman reluctantly allows her son to marry. The wedding ends in disaster as the bride runs off with her former lover, leading to the death of both him and the groom. Through thoughtful design in every element of their production, the cast and crew of Annandale High School brought Lorca's tragedy to the stage with an elegant touch.


Maya Koch captured the audience's attention as Mother, her every hunched movement and twisting visage conveying the character's perpetual anxiety and bitterness. In the final scene, her explosion of simmering grief was both powerful and tragic, filling the auditorium with palpable, desperate anguish.


Portraying Leonardo's Wife, another character trapped in suffering, Savannah Gravitt stood out in a role that could have been lost in the background. With expert control of her voice and acting, Gravitt remained tremulous and timidly mollifying while still holding a distinct stage presence throughout the show. Her interactions with the short-tempered Leonardo, skillfully played by Beckman Hollis, were believably strained and heartbreaking to watch. Hollis' ability to switch from tense and apoplectic with Leonardo's Wife to tender and ardent with Bride brought the complex character to life.


In a play heavy with sorrow, crucial comic relief was delivered by Ioana Marin as the vivacious Servant. Flitting about with hilarious off-key singing and playfully suggestive comments to the Bride and Bridegroom, these moments of humor were a welcome respite before the somber events to come.


The most impressive aspect of the show was the set design. It was evident that each piece was deliberate, from the majestic sweep of the shimmering moon platform to the rustic, weathered walls in every family's home that created a genuine feel to the domestic sets. Meticulous props enhanced this authenticity, such as a hot plate utilized to cook a real egg onstage at the beginning of the play. In the final act, the transformation from the forest swirling with different colors and gnarled black trees to a bare white church was an effective use of symbolic contrast to highlight the change in tone. Although the set changes could stretch a bit long, gentle classical guitar played live atop the moon platform in the first and second acts, connecting each scene perfectly. In the third act, the guitar melodies were replaced with lilting violin music composed by Anna Castillo, who portrayed Mother-in-Law. Period-appropriate costuming also contributed to the symbolism permeating each scene, as with Bride draped in a bright red cloak amid a stage devoid of color in the ending.


It is undeniable that thorough care was put into each facet of this show. Remarkable attention to detail by the dedicated Annandale Theatre Company paid off in a successful, meaningful production of Blood Wedding that was as intriguing as it was intricate.

Erin Mullins
Lake Braddock Secondary School
Submitted for publication to FCPS Community News

A wedding is supposed to be a day full of joy and happiness, one to remember forever. Well, this wedding will be remembered, but for the exact opposite reason.

Written in 1932 by Federico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding takes place in rural Spain in the 1930s. The story follows a mother, her son, and his bride-to-be. The mother is weary of the bride because of her past relationship with a man named Leonardo, who is still in love with her. As the play continues, the bride and Leonardo end up running away together and disaster strikes when the love triangle turns deadly.

Annandale High School performed with enthusiasm and intensity. Many actors presented a strong stage presence. The consistent switch between acting and singing gave the almost completely student run show an interesting quality.

Mother, played by Maya Koch, is a woman full of pain, worry, and distrust. Both her husband and oldest son were murdered, and she lives now to protect her only family member, the Bridegroom, from harm. Koch performed with emotion that translated the character's complexity and heightened the motives behind her actions. Her built up momentum throughout the play ended with mourning that echoed throughout the silent room.

Leonardo's wife, played by Savannah Gravitt, is a naive, yet strong willed character. She is devoted to Leonardo, even when his attention is elsewhere, but she does not hesitate to fight back when he lashes out at her. Gravitt's performance gave a subtle, meaningful approach to the character. She highlighted not only her frustration with Leonardo well, but also the heartbroken grief she experiences after he runs away.

The costumes, specific to each character, had detailed and meaningful designs. The red cape the Bride wears to the funeral stood out among the white outfits and symbolized the events of the wedding. Most of the costumes, including the masks, the wedding dress, and the Moon costume, were student-made (Maya Koch, Juliana Iglesias, Lena Iglesias, and Ioana Marin). The use of a periaktos prism for the set (Carson Binkley and Beckman Hollis) was unique. The shifting, though long, was covered by the guitarist, Saad Farooq, who's traditional Spanish style music set the mood for the story. A lot of the music performed in the show, the violins specifically, was original and self-composed (Anna Castillo and Saad Farooq).

The cast provided an energy filled performance, especially in the first act, and brought to life a difficult drama of betrayal, deception, loss, and love.

Erik Wells
Lake Braddock Secondary School
Submitted for publication to Patch.com

The Bride, the Groom, the wedding band, an ex-boyfriend's revenge scheme, and a moon goddess who watches the events unfold from afar. Just your typical wedding stuff, right?

Blood Wedding, a tragedy by the Spanish author Federico Garcia Lorca, was written in 1932 and first performed in Madrid the following year. In 1930s rural Spain, a man known as "the Bridegroom" is engaged to be married to The Bride, but his mother disapproves of the union because of The Bride's previous affair with Leonardo Felix, whose family was responsible for the murder of The Mother's husband. A visit with The Bride and her Father puts the mother at ease, and the wedding proceeds as planned, but Leonardo reappears with some tricks up his sleeve.

Maya Koch masterfully plays the arc of The Mother's downfall. In the first act, she is a strong, proud woman as shown through her upright posture and commanding, if world-weary, tone, but by the end of the play, she is a broken mess who has given up any attempt at sophistication, as showcased in her slacked posture and harsh, biting tone towards The Bride. Another scene-stealer is William Rangel Cardozo as The Father. Cardozo garnered some of the play's biggest laughs with his seemingly jovial tone and "goofy dad" demeanor undercut comically by his frantic bustling and head-wringing during the wedding. Also worth mentioning are Savannah Gravitt as Leonardo's wife and Anna Castillo as his mother-in-law. The two perform a beautiful, sorrowful duet in their first scene that helps set the stage for the tragedy to come. The entire cast does a great job with stage business, especially in the bigger wedding scenes, where everyone can always be seen performing minor tasks or conversing with other characters even when they aren't in the focus of the scene, and it's details like this that make the play come alive.

The show's prism set, designed by Carson Binkley, was made up of individual periaktos shifted to form the walls of different houses. Installed on the sides of the various periaktos were a window, a kitchen counter, and bookshelves, which helped to make them feel like actual house walls. This was also aided by the grungy shades chosen to paint the prisms, as they made the houses feel lived in. Another eye-catching detail was the intricate tarot card paintings on either side of the stage that helped to foreshadow the play's outcome. Binkley's lighting design effectively created an atmosphere of tension with pulsing red cyclorama lights underscoring a crucial act two fight between the Bridegroom and Leonardo. William Rangel Cardozo's prop design added authenticity to the show by supplying a real egg to be cooked on stage, which grabbed the audience's attention right at the opening of the play. While the age lines were a bit too prominent on some characters, most of the character makeup felt subtle and natural, for instance The Mother, that helped make her look pale and weary. The show was aided immensely by a live score, composed by Anna Castillo, and played by four musicians on a raised moon-like platform onstage. Not only did the music help underscore important moments within the play, but it also provided something to entertain the audience during extended scene transitions.

If you're looking for a play with a captivating story, skilled acting, and vibrant tech, go see Annandale High School's fall production for a bloody good time!

Caroline Thompson
Falls Church High School
Submitted for publication to Connection

Love can be as beautiful and pure as a white rose resting delicately in a bed of snow, but only if fate allows. In this harrowing production of Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca, the cast and crew of Annandale High School manage to bring forward the true meaning of tragedy and loss.

Set in the 1930's in the breathtaking countryside of Spain, Blood Wedding tells the deplorable story of a Bridegroom who marries a young woman with an unfortunate romantic past. It is soon revealed that the previous lover of the Bride, Leonardo Felix, is the son of the man who murdered the Bridegroom's father and brother.

Although the show was a play, the use of music in between set changes and even during scenes was a nice touch and hugely enhanced the audience's understanding of the events being played out. Notwithstanding the fact that the scene changes often took too long, the intricate and alluring set was well worth the wait. As for the acting, the vibrant and colorful diction that pierced the air every so often or the raw emotion that was so believably played out, could make even the cruelest of hearts skip a beat.

This rendition of Blood Wedding directed by Katie Brunberg was quite well cast. The Mother, played by Maya Koch, was, at the very least, a challenging character. The pain, anguish, and at certain times, the compassion that the Mother felt were superbly executed by Koch. She emitted these emotions with a deep understanding of her character which in turn often gave way to powerful reactions from the audience.

Although the play was a tragedy, the intermittent comedic relief of the Servant of the Bride played by Ioana Marin was a welcomed change in mood. Marin skillfully combined the Servant's bubbly, optimistic, and somewhat frisky personality with her affectionate and protective motherly side. These characteristics mixed to create a supporting character that became a crucial addition to the eighteen-member cast.

The mood of the show, though tactfully represented by the cast, was made crystal-clear by the alluring notes of a guitar played by Saad Farooq in Act One. The dulcet tones changed with minimal snafus to sorrowful ones as the end of Act One came closer. Nearly flawlessly executed, Saad Farooq made the prolonged scene changes pleasurable with his beguiling melodies.

Every piece of set seemed to be symbolic of one aspect of the theme or another. On either side of the stage, tarot cards hung foreshadowing doom. The real masterpiece of the play was the set itself. So detailed, so emblematic, it truly made the play.

At the end of Act One, the Bride and Leonardo have run away together to the deep and dark forest in the dead of night. The Bridegroom chases after the two star-crossed lovers. Leonardo and the Bridegroom meet and a battle ensues resulting in the death of both men, and the Bride and Mother of the Bridegroom in desolate ruin. The last scene shows the ill-fated Mother completely alone at church mourning the loss of her family. And so, the perfectly white petals of innocent love were tarnished and blackened by the deep-red splatter of an odious blood.

Emily Smith
Lake Braddock Secondary School
Submitted for publication to Fairfax County Times

The high tensions and passionate love affairs of mid-1930's Spain flooded Annandale High School's stage as the Atoms took on Blood Wedding. The gripping story of the love affair between Leonardo Felix and the Bride was written in 1932 by Federico Garcia Lorca. The show premiered in Madrid in 1932, and enjoyed a brief run on Broadway in 1935.

Blood Wedding opens in the quaint house of the Mother, on the eve of her son's wedding day. The Mother disapproves of her son's choice, because his Bride was once romantically involved with the son of the man who murdered her eldest boy and husband, but decides to give her a chance.This is the wrong decision, as the devilishly charming Leonardo Felix returns to his former lover's life and convinces her to escape with him. The Bridegroom pursues the lovers into the forest, where he and Leonardo murder each other in a duel. The families of the men are left alone to wonder how such a small thing as a knife can cause so much harm.

Each of the performers in Blood Wedding communicated the subtle tones of the text with conviction and a select few stood out from the rest. Maya Koch, who portrayed the mother of the bridegroom, lead the pack, from the first scene with her confident and practiced preparation of breakfast, to the last scene, in which her character fully crumbles underneath the weight of her grief. The audience fell in love with Ioana Marin for her immense joy, from when she stood on a chair and thrilled us with the Servant's excitement over the wedding to when she put the audience into stitches over her heartfelt, ear-wrenching singing performance. Savannah Gravitt compelled us all with her angelic voice, foreshadowing the events to come in a haunting lullaby about a horse. William Rangel Cardozo's deep understanding of the bride's Father came across in the bubbly yet reserved way he openly welcomed the bride's family into his lovely home.

The first impression of the show comes from a hauntingly beautiful melody drifting down from a clever and quintessentially Spanish moon-shaped platform. Blood Wedding's soundtrack, save for a few classical songs during a party scene, has been lovingly handcrafted by Anna Castillo and Saad Farooq to highlight and underscore the dramatic tones of the show. The next noticeable thing is the set. Carson Binkley and Beckman Hollis both wove as much gentle yet meaningful symbolism as possible, from tarot cards on the walls to the placement of visually interesting and versatile rotating platforms. Special effects for this show, designed again by the multitalented Carson Binkley in conjunction with Christina Le, were beautifully executed. Actors actually cooked scrambled eggs onstage during the show, and during Act Two the team filled the stage with a gloriously thick and even blanket of fog.

The cast and crew of Blood Wedding poured their heart and soul into a show that is an open letter to our often brutal social structures and personal relationships. From the first notes of the opening scene to the curtain call, it was evident that every performer and member of the crew believed utterly in the production they were performing.

Elizabeth Waldt
West Springfield High School
Submitted for publication to The A-Blast

Get ready for a wedding...a blood wedding. Annandale High School's production of Blood Wedding tells the tale of a highly forbidden love.

Blood Wedding was originally written by Fredrico Garcia Lorca in 1932. The Spanish tragedy was later translated, and its English version had a short run on Broadway in 1935. This rural tale tells about a Mother, bitter from losing her first son and husband, and her living son who is about to be married. The day of the wedding arrives and the ceremony goes perfectly, except the bride has disappeared. It quickly comes into focus that the bride has run away with another man! A normal wedding quickly turns bloody.

Maya Koch portrays the mother of the groom, a sour old woman who is not totally approving of her son's upcoming marriage. She has incredible stage presence, with a voice that boomed even without a microphone. Playing her son was Jack Dalrymple, who demonstrated very realistic chemistry with his mother. He seemed as if he was actually in love with the bride, who breaks his heart within the day.

Blood Wedding would not be complete without a bride. Emily Trachsel acted as the son's wife who leaves him on the wedding day for another man. She showed the essence of someone who is torn between two men effortlessly, and naturally portrayed the relationships with her two men. The comic relief of the show was the servant of the bride who made the audience crack up with her enthusiasm (and awful singing). Ioana Marin was committed to every crazy action she had to perform, making the show all the more realistic.

Perhaps some of the best aspects of Annandale's show were their costumes and properties. The props head, Christina Le, made everything look life like, from the kitchen equipment to the baby who sometimes appears in the show. One of the actors even uses a real pan and stove to make eggs on stage, filling the auditorium with delicious smells. Since Blood Wedding was set in the Spanish 1930's, Annandale was challenged to show the time period through costumes. They obviously did their research, as the cast sported period appropriate clothes such as a black wedding dress and white dresses to a funeral.

Blood Wedding is a classic Spanish tragedy telling the story of two lovers, forbidden to be together. Annandale did a fantastic job showing off the rural countryside of Spain in such a dark tale. You would be surprised how quickly a normal wedding can turn bloody…

Meredith Nolan
West Springfield High School
Submitted for publication to The A-Blast

A bride must choose between her two lovers on her wedding day- no, it's not the premise for the latest soap opera! It's Annandale High School's production of the Spanish tragedy Blood Wedding, written by Federico Garcia Lorca. Get ready to be taken on a roller coaster of emotion, forbidden love, and death.

Blood Wedding was originally written in Spanish in 1932 and was performed in a multitude of countries, including locations in Argentina and Spain, and eventually had a brief run on Broadway translated into English in 1935. The play follows a bride on her wedding day who must choose between her groom and former love, and when she goes missing, tensions arise in the community as old feuds come up.

The cast was clearly able to understand the rhetoric of the play, allowing them to do an excellent job connecting with the inner feelings of their individual characters. A stand out performance throughout the play was that of Mother, played by Maya Koch, who was able to create a character with incredibly varied emotions, as the Mother's grief builds throughout the play. Koch's ability to portray such grief-stricken emotions was truly unbelievable and showed her dedication to playing her part realistically. Both male leads, Bridegroom and Leonardo, played by Jack Dalrymple and Beckman Hollis respectively, were able to accurately portray the emotions the push and pull of a love triangle brings out in all parties involved.

Emily Trachsel, as Bride, expertly brought a touch of innocence to the show, allowing her to garner sympathy despite the downfall of her character. William Rangel Cardozo, as Father, was another great performance, as Cardozo tapped into the grounded nature of his character, bringing relief from the otherwise dramatic nature of the play. Savannah Gravitt, as Leonardo's Wife, had an incredible ability to portray the despair felt by her character as she watches her husband pull away and leave her and their two children. Ioana Marin, as Servant, brought comedic relief to the show, adding hilarious mannerisms and facial expressions that distinguished her from the rest of the cast. The emotional spectrum brought by this cast helped bring this production together.

This play had a few key technical elements to help convey setting and mood. The set, designed by Carson Binkley and headed by Beckman Hollis, had incredible detail and thought, as every piece had its own symbolism. This helped immensely with the understanding of the play and looked extremely professional. Costumes, designed by Maya Koch and headed by Juliana Iglesias, were also very detailed and well thought out, staying true to the era of the 1930's. The music composed by Anna Castillo and played during scene changes by a group of student musicians, helped to set the mood and keep the audience engaged throughout blackouts. All of these elements helped pull the show together and were a huge asset.

Annandale High School's production of Blood Wedding was a bloody success.