HHS presents 'Kiss Me, Kate'
By Gregg MacDonald
After some deliberation, Herndon High School drama teacher Sarah Bever decided to remain traditional in the student production of the Cole Porter musical “Kiss Me, Kate.”“I tried to see if I could update the play by making it be during modern times, but it just didn't work,” she said. “The play is very stylistic. The dialog sounds like it was written in the 1950s and so everything is very true to period for this show.”
“Kiss Me, Kate” is really two plays in one, a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of “The Taming of the Shrew” while the encircling play is about an estranged husband and wife that must put on the Elizabethan production along with some fellow actors.
Bever said she double-cast the primary roles since each actor must essentially play two characters.
The role of Lilli/Katherine is played by Meagan Carrick and Kate Merryman; the roles of Fred/Petruchio are played by Sam McCracken and Matthew Sipe; the Lois/Bianca roles are played by Talya Vikrama and Monica Gilley; and Bill/ Lucentio are played by Ethan Rundlett and Rob Fowler.
The total cast includes 55 students of all grade levels.
“But almost 100 students are involved if you count the orchestra and all the technical students,” Bever said.
“This is a lighthearted play that won't make you contemplate the meaning of life or anything but you will laugh and leave feeling good. This is also a really fun production because I get to collaborate on it with the choir director and musical director and a new choreographer, Deborah Fowler, who is really fantastic,” she said.