“With a classic fairy-tale setting, loads of exciting and hilarious roles to play, a variety of entertaining musical numbers and a plot full of mystery and adventure, this show has it all!”

–Pioneer Drama Service

The title probably made no sense to someone unfamiliar with Blaine High School’s 2014 children’s musical. So to clarify, Princess Whatshername is the peculiar name of a musical about a girl who wakes up in a misty forest with no memory about anything. She doesn’t even remember what her name is (hence the name)! In order to figure out who she is, she goes on a journey, meeting several fairytale princesses and creatures along the way. And of course, just like every other fairy tale that has ever existed, there’s a prince hoping to rescue her. Actually, there are multiple princes.

The cast and crew kicked off their opening night with a spectacular show. “[The auditorium] filled up really fast! And there was lots of laughter and cheering,” exclaims Emma Wilson (sophomore), who is doing tech as part of the running crew this year. Other than a chair being forgotten on stage by another runner, everything apparently went as expected. Claire Rooney (Sophomore), an actor playing the annoyed character of Queen of the North explains the abundance of talent.”The majority of the cast were freshmen, and they really blew us away with their talent. They bumped up the bar for incoming freshmen next year,” she says.  One of Rooney’s favorite memories in the show is Shelby’s very long wig (Rapunzel, probably) and her ball cap. Cynthia Hess, Blaine High School’s theatre director, says, “Princess Whatsername was a tremendous show with 44 students in the cast, 24 of them were freshmen. In addition we had ten students on the running crew and eight of them were freshman. It was an excellent showing of the talent that has come into the program this year.” She also mentions how proud she was “of everyone for making this show such a success.”

Future aspirations for the cast and crew are to get more people involved in theatre, and to get more people to come to their shows. So in case you were wondering whether to be or not to be in a high school musical, the answer is clear. There’s no better place to bring a bunch of strangers together and morph them into a family onstage and backstage better than theatre.