Game Show “Chain Reaction” Recruits at MHS

by Elana Congress

(January 18, 2007) This spring, all of America will have the chance to see three students and three teachers from MHS on national TV. The game show “Chain Reaction” came to MHS on January 11 th to choose three students (to form one student team) and three teachers (to form one teacher team) to air during their specialty week, “Teachers versus Students”. Casting director Megan Miguez described the show as a “word play association game connecting common two-word phrases to form a multi-part chain.” (See The Game Show Network for more details). The contestants are given the first and last words of the several-word long chain, and can then ask for the first letter of one of the words. For example:

The answers are “secret spy,” “spy glass,” “glass case,” “case worker,” “worker bee,” “bee hive.” If a contestant gets the word wrong, then the other team can either ask for the next letter in the same word or move on to a different word in the chain.

Audition Host explains the game.

Why would a national television show decide to audition students at MHS? Chain Reaction is based in New York City and for reasons of cost and convenience, they decided to look for contestants in the surrounding area for their “teachers v. students” week. “We wanted a variety of schools from New Jersey, Westchester, and Long Island,” Ms. Miguez said. The casting staff called several different schools in the area, and MHS responded the fastest.

“We are so impressed with the kids in this school, they are so well-rounded,” Ms. Miguez exclaimed. “The teachers really care about the students, and the students seem to care about the teachers. There’s a nice dynamic.” Other schools the casting staff will visit in the next few weeks are Plainedge High School on Long Island, West Morris High School in New Jersey, Walter Panas High School in Westchester, and Sewanhaka High School on Long Island.

Teachers Elizabeth Clain, Linda Sherwood and Heather Davis came appropriately attired in MHS orange and black.

Forty-two students and teachers gathered in McClain Auditorium after school on January 11th to audition for the show. The audition consisted of two parts. The first part was a literacy test, which was “actually pretty hard,” said MHS junior Julia Kaplan, who auditioned with fellow-juniors Mike Levy and Astrid Schanz-Garbassi. The test was basically a written version of the game. It was a timed, eight-minute test, but “the longest eight minutes of my life,” says biology teacher Laurie DeRosa, who auditioned with fellow science teacher Ann Kang and George Reed from Buildings and Grounds on a team called “Staff Infection”.

A student team awaits its chance to guess the chain.

The second part of the audition was actually playing the game with the "ones" team, every contestant for himself. This part of the audition was filmed, but according to senior Andrew Rothaus, it was actually “very laid back. The people were very nice, and they were just asking questions to get to know you.” Ms. Kaplan agreed: “Once we got into the room [where we played the game], it was a lot more relaxed and we were able to laugh with [the casting agents] and have fun. They were really nice.”

To see MHS students and teachers on the show, tune into Chain Reaction’s second season, which will begin on March 1st (channel 88, at 10 pm, Tuesday to Saturday). The “teacher versus student” specialty week will probably air sometime in April. The show will be shot at SONY studios in Manhattan sometime during February. Those who auditioned will be notified if they are going to be on the show in early February.

Elana Congress is a junior at Mamaroneck High School and a reporter for The Globe.

Front Page

Print This Page
Email this page