Sickness spread throughout the cast and crew of Spamalot last week, causing understudies to fill in for the two final shows of the Theatre and Choir’s spring production.

One of the lead roles, Sir Robin, contracted the flu leading to Junior Aiden Kocian filling in. After learning he had to fill in at 4pm on Thursday, January 30, Aiden filled in the stop, describing it as “stressful.”

“I kind of knew at the beginning of the day that there was a chance that I would have to, and come 4th period I got a script from Stonebarger and I was reviewing his lines and about towards the end of the day during tutorials it looked like I wouldn’t have to,” Kocian said. “Then Aaron’s condition got worse and worse and come around 4pm they were like OK we need you to do this.” 

With many of the rehearsals being 7 hour rehearsals, it leads to the cast spending a lot of time together. This applies to all of Clear Springs, as the student body is always in close proximity to one another in the halls, in classrooms and at other after school events.However, there are ways to prevent illnesses like the flu from spreading as bad. 

Some ways to prevent the flu from spreading around school is to start by getting the vaccine. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 6 months and older get their flu shot by the end of every October. Another way to prevent the flu is by washing hands and avoiding touching the eyes, nose and mouth. Bacteria and viruses spread easier when someone touches their face after touching an area that was potentially infected.

It’s important to be aware of flu symptoms. Symptoms of the flu include but are not limited to fever, aches, chills and fatigue. It’s also important to know the differences between an everyday cold and the flu. Cold symptoms are gradual and it’s rare to have a fever accompany a cold whereas symptoms of the flu are abrupt.

For the 2019-2020 season the amount of people getting the flu has already been very high. For Galveston County alone the amount of reported cases has gone from 1,350 cases from October 1, 2018 – January 29, 2019 to 3,813 cases from October 

1, 2019 – January 29, 2020. 

Overall, even though a good amount of the Spamalot cast got sick, Junior Emma Garcia said “It’s never been nearly as bad as this year. We usually all get a cold or something small like that but this year’s timing was really bad with the spread of the flu in our school.”  Only a few actually contracting the flu, the cast and crew were still able to come together and put on a great show.