Despite Struggles, VVHS Presents “The Witch’s Princess”

By AMY DAVIS

The Progress

Nearly everything that could possibly go wrong did. The Witch’s Princess, presented last week by the VVHS Theatre Department was the production that almost never happened. The production personified the phrase, “The Show Must Go On!” Against all odds,

The VVHS students, under direction of teacher Kelly Zarndt, presented three showings of this play on October 20 and 22 for $5 a ticket, and they knocked it out of the park!

The story was a fantasy adventure with tons of comical modern-day references, King Eldergaarde is determined to marry his daughter, Princess Alessandra, off to the first knight who defeats the evil bog witch and lifts the curse from their kingdom. Many knights are killed, and the Bog Witch remains unharmed. The Princess decides to avoid marriage completely and kill the bog witch herself. In order to defeat the witch, Princess Alsessandra knows that first she must assemble a deadly crew of monsters and mythical beings to help her in her quest. As she does so, she realizes that her kingdom was built on a mountain of lies and nothing is as it seems. Princess Alessandra had been deceived her whole life and does indeed become the heroine of her own story.

Now for the drama behind the drama.
“I started out with a completely different play,” said Zarndt. “It was supposed to be kind of funny and then the first week of read through, I looked at the students and I said, ‘I hate this. I hate everything about it. Let’s pick a different show!”

Zarndt said she had been holding onto to the script for “The Witch’s Princess” for two years and brought it out for this occasion.

The kids were slightly shocked at the script change and looked at her “like she was growing another head out of her neck.”

She then affirmed, “I have been very blessed to have children who were just willing to go with the flow and stick it out.”

Well, almost everyone stuck it out. Throughout the course of the play rehearsal, a few students quit, another had to leave for personal reasons, and the stage in the theater was condemned.

That’s right, because of structural weakness in the stage flooring, it has been condemned for several months now awaiting a resolution by CCSD. So the venue was changed to the small platform in the Student Center at the school.

All of this forced the kids to be resilient. Students filled in for missing characters in the script by playing multiple parts which required multiple costume changes (with a small bathroom instead of a backstage area).

The student center presented its own set of problems since it isn’t equipped for sound or lights and only offered a makeshift, odd, shaped, triangle stage. Since the student center is also the cafeteria, the theater performers had to set up and break apart their stage every single day. Exhausting.

But the show went on! None of that trouble impacted the student’s production and the small stage area actually permitted the performers to interact with the audience in a very up close and personal way. The audience roared with laughter in all of the right spots and the silly story line really allowed the students to entertain.

What did the actors think? Senior Kiera Davis, who played dual roles of Queen Selyse and the Jabberwock said, “The whole play has been really hard to bring together. We have met challenge after challenge and to see how it all turned out tonight is really rewarding.”

When asked how it felt to have the audience so close while performing, Junior Kiana Davis said with a laugh, “It’s fun being interactive, but it also feels awkward to have them stare at you so closely.”

Josh Mathews, a sophomore, played five different characters. With a big smile on his face Josh said, “I was just trying to remember what costume I was supposed to wear at what time and where I was supposed to be. It was crazy but so fun.”

Junior Kately Hansen,also played multiple roles in this, her 4th play at VVHS. “This play was so crazy,” she said. “There were days when we thought we might just cancel it altogether. But it was so fun to do. Absolutely worth the struggle.”

Zarndt expressed great pride in her students, “the kids rocked this out and made it phenomenal.
In an emotional moment, Zarndt got teary as she thanked the audience. “It means the world to these kids that you would be here and support them on this stage where most of them find their home,” she said.

This was actually the best play performed in a long time. It was funny and lighthearted and just plain old entertaining.