Getting cast as the lead in the school play can be a daunting task, especially for an underclassman in their first play. But sophomores Isabelle Liekhus and her co-star Henry Fritz are more than up for the task, playing the title characters in the beginning repertory show “Peter/Wendy.”
“I did not expect to get the lead,” Liekhus said, “I thought that everyone was very good in class, but there were only four girls and four girl parts, so it could have been anybody.”
Though it is her first high school play, she is by no means new to theater.
“I did theater all over middle school,” she said, “It’s really fun to do, so I thought the class with a different teacher would be fun too.”
Despite previous experience, high school theater is a much different experience, with many new challenges.
“Middle school is a lot less professional,” Liekhus said, “It was a lot more relaxed. If you didn’t have your lines, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Nobody cared too much if they were actually getting things right. But in high school, you do a lot of acting exercises, and you work on your lines a lot, and you have to be a lot more professional about rehearsals. It’s a bigger time commitment with rep [theater]. I spend a lot more time [rehearsing] on the days I don’t even have theater.”
Her co-star Fritz has a similar perspective when looking at the transition from middle to high school.
“I can definitely see the level of difference between middle school and high school,” Fritz said. “I got leads in middle school and it was a lot less. I think the best word is intense. I feel like I’m more in character and not myself when I’m performing ‘Peter/Wendy.’”
When looking at their future years, Liekhus and Fritz feel the show has greatly helped to prepare them for future shows in the theater department.
“I feel like this will definitely help me with future theater performances,” Fritz said. “I feel like I understand how to characterize and get into character a lot better than I [used to].”
Taking a more dramatic approach to the classic story, “Peter/Wendy” will be in the Flex Theater on December 13th at six.
“The show’s really fun,” Liekhus said. “It’s going very well, so I think people should come see how it’s going for the first show for this group of people. It’s fun to watch because it’s the same childhood story everybody knows about Peter, but a lot more dark and kind of upsetting.”
