‘Prelude to a Kiss’ marks new beginnings, ends
Theater presents final performance of year
Sophomores Cole Kanne and Isaac Scott rehearse for the upcoming spring play “Prelude to a Kiss.” Theater will have its last performance May 4 at 2 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
May 4, 2019
With her four years of theater coming to a close, senior Zoey Zachek said the spring play indicates the end of her thespian career at Park.
“It’s really crazy because I’m one of the seniors who has been in the program all of high school. So to see the different people cycle through and see people leave, it’s surreal to be that person that’s leaving this year,” Zachek said. “It’s very sad, but also bittersweet because I know that I can come back and see the shows later.”
According to freshman Jacob Khabie, the spring play “Prelude to a Kiss” follows Peter and Rita, a couple who get married after two months.
“‘Prelude to a Kiss’ is this romantic comedy with a sci-fi twist,” Khabie said. “Peter and Rita have this whirlwind romance and at the wedding, this old guy goes up to the bride and asks to kiss her. When they do kiss, they swap bodies.”
Zachek said the absurdity of the play separates it from shows the theater has presented in the past.
“‘Prelude to a Kiss’ is a very strange story. It’s definitely very different from any other play that we’ve done here,” Zachek said.
For Khabie, he said “Prelude to a Kiss” was an exciting first step in becoming a head stage manager in the coming years.
“I’m the assistant stage manager for this show so I help our head stage manager Nietzsche, who has also been mentoring me to be one later in high school,” Khabie said. “A lot of what I did was assign transitions to people and assign who was moving what.”
Sophomore Cole Kanne, who plays one of the leads, Peter, said the actual performances mark the end of months of hard work from the cast and crew.
“We have two months where we’re practicing and practicing, and then tech week comes and it’s just brutal because we stay until seven every day,” Kanne said. “We’re just consistently running the show, going over scenes over and over, snap lining. It’s all really tiring.”
According to Zachek, despite the recent change in performance dates because of Prom’s rescheduling, the performances thus far have gone well.
“We’ve never had a performance on a Thursday before so it was definitely a little strange for us. It felt more like a dress rehearsal than an actual performance but I think it went pretty smoothly,” Zachek said.
Kanne said he expected the Thursday date to have a lower turnout than other performance days.
“Actually the energy (Thursday) was really high which I wasn’t expecting,” Kanne said. “I was also expecting a lot less people because it was a Thursday but the whole middle and right side were really full, which was surprising.”
Zachek said the final show will be particularly difficult to perform in as a senior.
“The performance on Saturday is definitely going to be hard, especially for the seniors since it will be our last show ever at the high school,” Zachek said.
According to Zachek, theater will have its last performance of “Prelude to a Kiss” May 4 at 2 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults.
Theater director Jodi Hatzenbeller was unavailable for comment at time of publication.
