You might think high school students are a little young to be suffering pangs of nostalgia.

But for Abbey Rowe of Transfer, a sophomore at Kennedy Catholic High School, returning to St. Michael's School in Greenville to perform "A Midsummer Night's Dream" "was like going to my old home."

Seeing old friends, teachers and administrators brought back memories for Olivia Rock, a freshman from Farrell.

"I miss it," she said of Notre Dame School in Hermitage, which she left only last spring.

Jamie Moroco had mixed emotions when she performed at St. Joseph's School, Sharon.

"It was fun to go back and I miss it, but it's so small I'm glad I'm not there," said the junior from Sharon.

Nostalgia aside, the familiarity helped some of the Kennedy drama students overcome stage fright.

"It took away some of my nervousness," Waltina Currie, a freshman from Farrell, said of performing at Monsignor Geno J. Monti School, Farrell.

Joe Scarvell, theater teacher at Kennedy, said staging a show at the parochial schools benefits both the high school performers and the elementary- and middle-school audience members.

"The education literature is filled with studies that the arts must be a part of their educational profile," he said, adding that participation in the arts fuels science and computer studies.

"This is the kind of thing we should do," he said.

The show helped students in more obvious ways. George Revere, a senior from Youngstown, said his English pronunciation has improved, and he feels more confident about himself.

Robert Ippolito, a sophomore from New Castle, added that he hopes the experience of performing before students younger than himself will carry over whenever he has to speak publicly before peers or adults.

Above all, cast members said they enjoyed performing and hope the cast was able to bring across to their audience how much fun they had.

"Maybe, they will want to do it," Jamie said.

Jen Waters, a junior from Hermitage, said that was the impact theatrical presentations had on her when she was an elementary student.

"I remember when we used to have different groups come to St. Joe's," she said. "It was fun."

The group performed a "cutting" or shortened version of the Shakespeare comedy, which Scarvell altered slightly. He noted that Shakespeare did not write a role for a Fairy King.

"The boy wanted to be in the show and I didn't have a role for him, so I created one," Scarvell said, adding that he parceled out the Fairy Queen's lines between the two.

The set was simple, seven boxes painted with flowers that doubled as prop holders.

"Shakespeare wrote his plays and they didn't have scenery, so we don't have scenery either," Scarvell told Notre Dame students Thursday, asking them to picture the woodland setting in their minds.

The costumes were more elaborate. The wardrobe sampled styles from a variety of eras, from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages to the modern day.

Christina Farmartino, who played a colorfully winged fairy and twirled a ribbon on a pole, said Mary DiNunzio's costumes helped her get into character.

"You got to see everybody dressed up and it really came together," said the freshman from Farrell.

Waltina said the entire process of staging the play was fun.

"I like the excitement of it, putting it all together, going on the road," she said. "It's a magical feeling."

True to Shakespeare's era, Scarvell had a gender-bending actor. Jamie played Demetrius with painted-on goatee.

"I didn't care," she said of cross-dressing. "I was a fairy and I got a bigger part."

The audience ringed the set in an "arena-style" formation, and the actors who were not on stage stood off to the sides with their backs to the action.

"It was certainly different," said Allison Leonard, a freshman from Hermitage. "They can always see you, even when you're 'off stage.' You have to carry your character around with you."

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at jpin chot@sharon-herald.com