by Andrew Lei ’27 and Ben Quach ’27
“I’m mad as hell and I’m NOT gonna take this anymore!”
It’s an iconic line from Network, Bellarmine’s spring play this year. Set in Manhattan on the backdrop of New York City in 1975, Lee Hall’s adaptation of the Paddy Chayefsky film explores the presence of technology and abundance of information within our society, while also somehow critiquing capitalism, corporate greed and manipulation, and the commodification of people and services (and perhaps some religious symbolism and critique). And it does this through the story of a news anchor, who may or may not be a bit deranged, as he’s manipulated by producers, managers, and other higher-ups. There’s also some adultery.
It is shocking how unique and thematically dense the production seemed, while still maintaining good pacing that didn’t drag on.
With cameras broadcasting parts of the show live to TVs set up around the Black Box Theatre and rather explicit cursing, it was very much the unconventional experience.
I’m sure I’m not doing the show any justice, so following are three interviews with those involved with the show about what exactly Network means and creates.
Mr. Peter Canavese ’92 – Director
Q: Why did you choose to Network to direct?
A: I saw Network on Broadway in 2019, and it struck me as a show I immediately wanted to bring to Bellarmine. I was even familiar with the material before that because I had seen the film back when I was a Bellarmine student, and I liked it then. The play really showed me that it could live on the stage. I immediately started thinking about how it might work on a high school stage, and pursued the rights. It took me three tries to get the rights, but as soon as they were available, I got them– that’s how we ended up with a US high school premier and a West Coast premiere of Network!
Q: How did you connect and carry across the core elements of the movie and Broadway production to Bellarmine’s theater adaptation?
A: The Broadway play is done in a traditional proscenium theater, with the audience all on one side. It became apparent that here at Bellarmine, now that we do two musicals on the main stage and our dramas and comedies in the black box, I had to think about how to take a show from the Broadway stage to our little black box theater. Very quickly I decided that it could work with arena staging all around, which I really liked directing in that style because it brings the audience closer to the action–it’s very intimate and intense. The live video, as well, was an aspect of the original Broadway production I saw. We couldn’t have a big giant screen like them, but we worked with Helpdesk to get us our monitors, which we hung and cabled, and also get the little cameras that we installed in our fake studio cameras. Helpdesk helped us to get all that equipment and consulted with us about what they thought would work best. Also, of course, in our control booth, the actual control booth for the show, Emilio Perez was in charge of the live switching at the editing desk, so we could take pre-recorded videos of actors and meld them with live video from the show. It’s kind of designed in the script of the play to blur those things together.
Q: What were notable challenges associated with directing Network?
A: I think the biggest challenge is that the themes of the play are complex, and the characters are mature and around 50 in most cases–which is difficult when we have high schoolers in the cast. But that’s part of acting, to access your imagination and make those leaps forward. Our cast was very good! We had discussions about the characters and the script, and they worked many things out on their own in the end. That’s one of the things I’m most proud of with NETWORK – the cast really rose to the occasion playing these complicated characters.
Q: Are there any efforts you would like to especially commend–whether that’s actors, technicians, builders, or anyone else?
A: Certainly, the actors. But the crew was also enormously crucial! From the leader of the crew, Mr. Carlson, down to the stage crew who did over 38 scene changes in two hours! And George Lattie, the stage manager, who was responsible for making sure that all of that happened and ran smoothly. He’s really the student leader of the crew for the production. And then we also had a great costume staff, who not only costumed the cast, but gathered props for us and did hair and makeup, especially since some of the actors were playing more than one character or older characters. Also, Mr. Ceseña leads Bellarmine creative studios, and works with students on their videos over the years. He agreed to edit the opening montage for me–which was not in the script, but just an idea I had to help the audience contextualize the play. I thought that would be a good way to bring a high school audience into the story. Like I say in the director’s note of the program, it “takes a village” to do something that complex!
Q: What were the greatest successes of the NETWORK?
A: A lot of the feedback I got was about the amazing technical aspects of the production, how that was carried off by the students, and then also on the other side how sophisticated the performances were for young people. It’s really those two things.
Q: What do you hope audiences can take away from the play?
A: My director’s note covers a lot of that in the program–Network has got themes of the “dumbing down of culture”, and how news used to be a public trust but now has been commercialized quite a bit and sensationalized. We’ve also come to a point in 2025 where people can’t agree on what the truth is anymore, because when we used to trust the news to tell the truth, now we have news that argues among each other about what the truth is. Sometimes, it even deliberately misleads for political reasons. So I want audiences to reflect on all of those themes that were beginning to appear in 1975 but have fully arrived by now in our society.
Cameron Kalivoda ’25 – Cast – Director/Terrorist
Q: What was your favorite part of the play?
A: Being able to join my friends on stage was a farfetched dream I held for the past couple of years. They encouraged and inspired me to audition and I’m grateful for the experience.
Q: What did you enjoy most about the acting and development process?
A: I think there were a few rehearsals Mr. Canavese wishes we took more seriously haha. I remember there were a lot of moments where we were struggling not to break because of miscellaneous moments. Spending so much time together in the hours and hours of rehearsal really helped us bond.
Q: What did you find most challenging about the production process?/ What did you struggle most with the acting?
A: Acting is not my thing. My whole life I’ve been pretty anxious about anything that involved getting up in front of people. This activity was very much outside of my comfort zone.
Q: This was your first play at Bell, so what made you decide to audition?
A: Like I said before, I made a lot of friends that were involved in this community, and so I always dreamed of being involved like they were and getting up on stage. They’re very welcoming and kind.
Q: What did you think about the play itself? The themes were quite complex and explicit, so how did that affect your perception of the show?
A: I think it’s a very unique show compared to the others produced by Bell Theater. It’s pretty interesting seeing some of the actors follow up from their role in a comedy musical to a serious role in this drama. I found it interesting that this show was seen as an exaggeration or extremity, but when performed in the 21st century, it almost seems realistic.
Q: What do you hope audiences take away from the play? What would you want their reaction to be?
A: Obviously I hope the audience was entertained, and I hope they were able to recognize the dedication put into this production. We sold out almost every day, so it was cool to see the community support us like that.
Mr. Austin Paige ’19 – Lighting Director & Designer
Q: Describe the technical process of NETWORK.
A: The biggest thing, lighting wise, that we had to be concerned with for NETWORK was the cameras. Unlike pretty much any other show I’ve done or has been done at Bellarmine, NETWORK is filmed as the show goes on–so they have film cameras set up. Because of this, because we didn’t have insanely high quality cameras that film studios would usually have, we used lower quality cameras, which could easily get flooded out by the light. Adding on to this, the quality of the monitors… It made the lighting itself a little difficult to get the right levels. Too dim, and you couldn’t see everyone on stage. Too bright, you couldn/t see what was on the monitor. So finding the balance was the most difficult technically.
Q: What’s your favorite scene in the play?
A: Definitely when Jose, who plays the head of the network Mr. Jensen, delivers his monologue. It’s just so much fun! Also, the final scene, where Howard gets shot and then the cameras continue to play him getting shot whereas he gets up and gives his monologue discussing media and everything like that… I’d say those two, specifically, were my favorite. The actors’ delivery and also the point of the scene were great.
Q: What were some successful moments with lighting for NETWORK?
A: I think it’s really just getting it done…. This was my first time ever fully designing a “theater in the round” show in the black box theater. Essentially, this was the first time seats were fully around the black box room, plus with the booth behind the audience–it was fun to work with that and figure out ways to do lighting without blinding people in the audience. I’m also very proud because the guys who worked on it, who actually did all the manual labor and programming, did really well with it. For a show that we don’t really have much information on, seeing that we’re both the high school premier and west coast premier of it, getting it done to this quality really impressed me!
Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote after seeing the play that: “Network can be faulted both for going too far and not far enough, but it’s also something that very few commercial films are these days. It’s alive.”
Network may not be for everyone–it’s rated R, it features characters screaming their heads off, and it’s not afraid to get its message across in radical ways. It ultimately tells a story that’s deeply rich and mesmerizing, woven into America’s culture of commercial conglomerates and corporate conscience.
At the end of the day, Network reminds us that we’re all characters behind a screen, feeding into an endless flow of information channels put before our eyes. It’s up to us to make sense of the maze we live in, carving out a path for ourselves forward.