Theater Theatrics
Students welcome new teacher/director
Theater students gathered on stage.
With the promise of a new and improved KHS, there are also new teachers who we have welcomed this year. One of the new teachers KHS has had the honor of welcoming is Catherine Gaertner, the new theater teacher.
“I love it here,” Gaertner said. “Everyone has been so welcoming and excited to see new things happening in the theatre.”
Gaertner is a bubbly, enthusiastic teacher that the students have come to admire, and claim the admiration will continue to grow as they grow closer as a team.
“She’s everything I hoped she’d be,” junior, and president of the theater club, Malachi Strachan said. “She’s a visionary, she’s energetic, she’s positive, and most importantly she has an unparalleled love of theater and UIL.”
Gaertner is ensuring that the students have a say so in what’s going on this year in theater. She is planning on making a few detailed changes to ensure the betterment of theater.
One thing I asked the students is what do they want from this year,” Gaertner said. “We want people to know we are legitimate and having a good time while building relationships. We are spending time getting to know one another, and I’m working on establishing my guidelines and expectations for behavior, how we treat one another, and how we rehearse. And of course, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.”
Timing is always a huge factor in everything, especially in theater. There are certain stage cues that need to be memorized, lighting concerns that must be perfected by performance and, of course, in the plain production of the play.
“I could always have more time,” Gaertner said. “But we will make it. Next up will be the UIL One Act play with auditions later this semester and competition in March.”
Not only is time a big factor, but so is the script. The script, quite literally, makes the play. They plan on making it as perfect as it can be to ensure their success and entertainment.
“Aside from some spur of the moment rewrites (permitted by the playwright, of course), everything seems as on schedule as you’d expect from theater,” Malachi said.
They have chosen an interesting play to perform; one that all of the students are extremely excited to be performing with one another. Not only are they interested in the performance, but also for the preparation of the play.
“This is my first year not being a performer but rather a stage manager,” Malachi said. “I never realized just how wonderful the process looks from the outside. There’s not a doubt in my mind, this play will be fantastic.”
The play is an interesting play on a popular TV show that many people are fanatical about.
“Game of Tiaras by Don Zolidis is going to be a whole stage full of fun,” Gaertner said. “It’s ridiculous, but since it’s based on Shakespeare’s King Lear we have a little bit of seriousness to deal with. It’s also a lot of hard and creative work to find our own spin on the traditional fairy tale princesses. We hope everyone comes out! Tickets will be $5, and we are performing Friday night Oct 28 and Saturday Oct 29 at 6:30 p.m.”