Dedication to the renovation

On Sunday March 21^st, RB held a dedication ceremony to celebrate the completion of the $52 million renovation.  Anyone in the RB community was welcome to attend the event which was held in the recently completed new auditorium.

The ceremonial ribbon was cut on the auditorium stage by Interim Principal Tim Scanlon and school board president James Marciniak.  Members of Student Association and faculty were invited on stage to help hold the ribbon.  The RB choir, band and orchestra were also present on stage to do musical interludes throughout the ceremony.

Student Association Executive Board members Stephanie Duve and Zeyne Guzeldereli gave speeches about their experiences during the renovation period.  Scanlon, as well as Assistant Principal John Passarella and some of the head construction workers who worked on the project, also gave speeches.

Passarella gave his speech commemorating his predecessor Bill Lehotsky, who passed away from cancer this past year.  Room 201, one of the newly renovated rooms in the building, was dedicated to Lehotsky in honor of his memory.

SA Student President Kelly Sherman also put together items for a time capsule that will be used to show a future generation of RB students what the school was like at this time.  The time capsule will be stored between walls in student services and will be opened in 50 years.

Some of the items in the capsule include: playbills, a lunch menu, state universities at a glance, a cheerleading uniform, a pom pom, a homecoming party favor, a community of caring key chain, an RB flag, a yearbook, and a recent hard copy issue of the Clarion.

“I was honored to be able to put together the time capsule,” said Sherman, “These items exemplify the RB community today.”

After the official ceremony took place in the auditorium, interested community members were led on tours by students who showed them the best features of the renovation.  This included the reconstructed science labs, the new community accessible fitness center, the reconstructed swimming pool and the redesigned cafeteria kitchen and serving area.

Murder Room, a killer performance

The scene starts off dark.  It’s late at night when Mrs. Hollister arrives home to find her husband sitting at the living room table, pouring himself a drink.  As Mrs. Hollister struggles to explain why she didn’t come home from her canceled church meeting, tensions rise and lies start to unravel.  Before the audience can even begin to figure out the truth, she fires three gunshots and Mr. Hollister lies dead on the floor.

RB’s presentation of The Murder Room may sound dark and mysterious, but its clueless, wacky characters made it just the opposite.  The performance kept the audience on the edge of their seats and laughing the entire time.

The small cast of six allowed the audience to connect with the characters and get a sense of who they really were.  Senior Zeyne Guzeldereli played the role of Mr. Edgar Hollister as well as police constable, Abel Howard.

“I’ve done original comedy before and that requires me to be 5 or 6 different characters,” said Guzeldereli, “so this was a piece of cake.”

His favorite role of the two was Edgar Hollister because he was crazy and eccentric.  Other characters in the show included Edgar’s ditsy daughter Susan (Stephanie Duve) and her laid back American fiancé (Dovas Lietuvninkas), Lottie Molloy, the Hollister’s sassy older housekeeper (Olivia Toriumi), the inquisitive inspector Crandall (Nathan Smith), and the devious Mavis Templeton Hollister, Edgar’s recent bride (Olivia Landa).

As the police and Mr. Hollister’s loved ones attempt to discover the truth behind his disappearance, secret identities are revealed and one discovery leads to another.  The suspicion of murder flies around and ironically the Hollister home has a secret room nicknamed “The Murder Room.”

The Murder Room’s twisted plot and quick, witty dialogue kept audience members entertained and often as confused as the characters, which seemed to be the point.  If it wasn’t the humorous dialogue keeping viewers amused, it was the secret contraptions and props used for the show.

Some of the clever contraptions on set included a drawer that flew open when the top of the desk was pounded, a window seat that led to “The Murder Room” and could only be opened by a very specific procedure involving the coat stand, and a picture frame on hinges that took the whole cast to operate.

A bicycle was another surprising prop that made a quick appearance in the show. Susan’s fiancé Barry rode in housekeeper Lottie Molloy on the handlebars, carefully maneuvering around furniture on the set.

“We had to practice the bike scene a lot to get it down,” said Toriumi .

With a plot that never slowed down and characters with secret identities and hidden agendas, the cast of The Murder Room put on a killer performance to say the least.

Man behind the mic, RB’s new voice

First he was a Speech Champion, now he is the voice of Riverside Brookfield’s morning announcements. Zeyne Guzeldereli greets the student population over RB’s intercom every morning to deliver the morning announcements. Everything from a good morning greeting, to where the chess club will meet after school, Guzeldereli gives students the low down about what’s what at RB.

 In 2009, Guzeldereli, a junior at the time, added a new honor to his resume. He wrote and performed his own piece to perform as part of the speech team. Guzeldereli practiced and perfected his speech to the point where he was able to qualify for the state tournament. Guzeldereli not only participated in the competition, he came in first and earned the IHSA Speech State Championship title, Best Original Comedy.

 The news of the new state Champion spread quickly around the school. Both students and teachers were all impressed by this incredible feat. No one was more impressed than RB Social Studies teacher John Fields. Fields was the one who recommended Guzeldereli for the job. “He’s a state speech champion and he’s the Director of Communications here at RB. He’s more than qualified for the position,” said Fields.

Fields was the one suggested to John Passarella, Assistant Principal at RB, that Guzeldereli be the new morning announcer. Passarella and many other teachers jumped at the opportunity. They thought that it would be pleasant to hear a student’s voice deliver the morning news. Without another thought, Guzeldereli was hired for the job. “I love my job,” Guzeldereli said, “My background in speech has definitely helped me feel more confident doing what I do.”

 You can listen to Guzeldereli every morning at 8:01 a.m. throughout the RB classes and hallways. Remember, it’s great to be a bulldog!