“Three, two, one, action!” Shai K. (‘25) shouts at the room crowded with Milken seniors.
Ariella S., a senior at Milken, adjusts her wig and begins to teach the class precalculus.
“You’ve got to loooove Cosine,” she instructs the class in a faint but distinct accent that closely resembles that of Milken’s actual precalculus teacher, Ms. Minasian, who has explained the Law of Cosines in class. Ariella pulls up a picture of Edna Mode’s closely cropped bob from The Incredibles and shares, “this is my haircut inspiration.” The seniors in the back of the room hold in barely contained giggles.
Each year, the Senior class at Milken writes, directs, and produces a 30 minute film in honor of the festive Jewish holiday of Purim. The film, called a “Shpiel”, features Milken seniors who dress up as their teachers and lovingly make fun of their idiosyncrasies.
“Purim is such a big thing for Milken because we’re such a spirited school, and Purim is such a spirited holiday,” Abby said. “So I think it only makes sense for us to be creating a movie that half mocks and half brings to light what this place is.”
This year’s Shpiel is called Welcome to Camp Milken and was led by seniors Abby Y., Shai K., Izzy B., Alex M., Jasmine M., and Melina R. Welcome to Camp Milken follows Dr. Sarah Shulkind, played by Ali S. (‘25), as she gives a tour to several potential investors. The group goes around to each classroom and observes the “ruckus that is Milken,” Abby said.
Alex came up with the idea for this year’s Shpiel. “The plot is that Milken was showing investors around the campus, which is something that I see them do at Milken all the time,” Alex said. “I was inspired by that…So I thought it would be fun to recreate that.
The first step in making the Shpiel is writing the script, a process that takes months and includes back-and-forth meetings with teachers and the administration.
“If anyone asked me what I was doing in the past four months,” Abby said, “I would literally tell you, all day long, all night long, I was writing.” The writing process included a rotating cast of dedicated students including Reese D. (‘25), and David M. (‘25), along with the previously mentioned students. This group of seniors came up with nearly every idea, scene, and joke in the film.
“I would just go up to everyone and ask for help – my friends, people I’m not friends with, teachers,” Abby shared, emphasizing the collaborative process of writing the Shpiel and how it crosses social boundaries and brings students together.
After getting final approval for the script from the administration, next up is filming.
Izzy is the producer of the Shpiel, a role that involves “communicating with the administration on what days we were planning on filming, where we were planning on filming, what actors we needed, and creating spreadsheets to organize all of our filming days.”
Shai shared that as a co-director and editor, she was “always behind the camera in every single scene.”
After the filming was done, Shai “edited the whole thing” The editing took “hours on hours. It was a lot of back and forth between me and Alex’s house,” she shared. “Sometimes I would drop off my computer, and he would edit, and then he would give it back to me.”
Though the process took a significant amount of time and effort, the Shpiel was “so rewarding” for Abby. Her advice for future seniors hoping to take on this project: “Know what you’re getting into, but it’s so fun and worth it.”
Some scenes all viewers should be sure not to miss are Alex’s personal favorite, the protest scene, Izzy’s favorite, the Milken Mart mom scene, and Abby’s favorite, precalculus teacher Mr. Meinert’s scene.
Watch the Shpiel here!
