“Stupendous, marvelous, sold out!” were some of Megan Shiplett’s adjectives describing opening night. Shiplett said, “It was beautiful how it came together.”
Shiplett is a senior at Community and was very pleased with how opening night went, despite a few minor errors. Shiplett wasn’t alone in her opinion. From listening to several of the cast members, the consensus after the performance was one of relief and excitement for the weekend’s performances, after having a successful opening night.
“It made me really, really happy because they were just all awesome,” said audience member and CHS senior Annie Flynn, “I really liked Rosie because she was so aggressively in character.” Rosie Sullivan, a senior at Community, played the part of Audrey 2, the man-eating plant.
The actors on Skid Row stayed in character the whole time. Even before the show started, they wandered up and down the hallways, talking to people and asking for money. “The people on Skid Row did a really good job of making me uncomfortable,” said Flynn.
“I’m thrilled for the kids,” said Quinn Strassel, CET director. “Everybody is fully invested and so what I wanted for them is just to have a really good experience and to feel the reward of all their hard work, and I think they did.”
Strassel studied theater in college as a performer but enjoys directing on a different level. “In some ways there is something more rewarding about seeing kids to see their own potential,” Strassel said, “There is actually no bigger thrill than watching the kids perform.”
Most of the actors were very nervous before the show, but the nerves went beyond the kids on stage. Helen Januszewski, co-props crew head, was extremely nervous before the show.
“I was terrified of missing a props cue and I just did not want to wreck it for everyone else,” Januszewski said. Despite nerves, the props made it on to the stage, including larger-than-life foam plant vines that stretched out to either side of the audience, and was lifted above our heads.
“The plant that was hoisted over the audience just got finished five minutes before we opened the doors to the audience,” said stage manager Joey Houghton. “An hour before the show, I didn’t think it was going to work. We had a line snap and I just didn’t think we could pull it off,” said Strassel. One of the parents helping out, Bryce O’Neal, took the initiative to figure out how to make it work. Kids were braiding rope to reinforce the cables, and after testing it a half hour before they opened the doors, decided to give it a shot. The cast and crew took a big risk but it paid off immensely and the audience loved it.
“They did a really cool thing with the plant,” Flynn said, who was just one of the many audience members who was blown away by the performance.
Eli Rhodenhiser played the lead role, Seymour. His 10-year-old sister, Emma-Jane Rhodenhiser, said “They had the perfect person for every character.”
Eli Rhodenhiser’s whole family was impressed with his performance. Another sister, Hannah Rhodenhiser, said, “I didn’t recognize my brother at first.” Although the family loved the show, they couldn’t make it to every performance because the tickets were too hard to get.
“How often can Pioneer say that they’re sold out?” said Shiplett. The audience was packed in every performance.“We’re sold out and the audience plays a big part of how you feel on stage,” said Etsie Arruda, who played one of the lead roles, Audrey.
Strassel said, “We may have technical snafus, we may have things that don’t go exactly how we want them to, but our show has heart and that’s what separates us from a lot of other high school shows.”
