By KEVIN NICOLAS
The Progress
The Virgin Valley High School Theater program presented Once Upon a Mattress in a two-day production on April 12-13.
This fairy-tale musical, roughly outlines the familiary story of the Princess and the Pea.
Prince Dauntless, the Drab, wants to marry a princess but his mother Queen Aggravain thwarts his every effort by creating tests impossible for any princess to pass.
Sir Harry searches the land and finds a true princess for Dauntless to marry: Princess Winnifred, the Woebegone! She is brash and unrefined but very likeable.
The Queen and Wizard put a pea under 20 mattresses to test Winnifred for sensitivity. If Winnifred is unable to sleep due to the pea, then she will be sensitive enough to marry Dauntless. In the end, Princess Winnifred passes the test of sensitivity and can marry Prince Dauntless.
Since the program’s fall production, numerous improvements have been made to the theater and its equipment.
“We have been able to get brand new lighting equipment in our theatre this year,” said theater teacher Wende Killinger. “It has helped tremendously! We did our fall production with only six lights. We now have over sixty lights to enhance our actors and movements. It has taken quite a few months to get them installed but the wait has definitely been worth it. You can now see the actors’ faces and expressions. The lights also help create the mood and atmosphere.”
Along with actors from the high school, a few actors from the Hughes Middle School also appeared including Alia Remishevskiy, Eliana Bennett, Bentley Oliver, and Sasha Oliver.
“Performing at the high school level has been really fun and I’ve adjusted well to the new atmosphere,” said Remishevskiy. “What inspired me to get involved with performing at the high school level was that the middle school doesn’t really offer any theater programs, which inspired me to step out of my comfort zone at the high school.”
