By Genesis Romo
During the week of Valentine’s Day, the cast of Kiss Me, Kate will not only perform in the Winter Musical, but also give their heartfelt goodbyes to one another.
The cast spent three hours together, five days a week, every week since late November, rehearsing and getting to know one another.
Anna Gianni, Div. 456, who played the lead role as Katherine, is one of the seniors who will miss spending time with the fellow cast members. Gianni said she would bake cupcakes and cookies for the cast to eat at rehearsals. Working together for so long has brought them closer together as they form new memories.
“Every single moment is absolutely hilarious,” Gianni said. “We have so many inside jokes it’s actually ridiculous. There is a meme devoted to things that happened that relate to our everyday life at rehearsal.”
Fernando Borges, Div. 584, who played one of the lead roles, is sad to part with the senior performers. However, Borges is appreciative of all his cast members for all the time they have spent together. He found the cast to be like his close family who comforted him during hard days.
“It was my chance to do a scene [one] day …and it was just a really bad day. I felt like I wasn’t right for the role, like, I wasn’t good enough for the role,” said Borges. “After the scene I ran off stage and a cast member just gave me a warm embrace and people just started to come in and it was this big group hug.”
With that group hug Borges said he felt a powerful connection to everyone, increasing his love for his cast family.
Borges said some of goofy things cast members would do included singing other performers’ songs backstage and taking countless snapchat photos.
Borges explained one of the inside jokes he had with his cast members.
“Kate sings a song ‘I hate men,’” he said. “And one time we were going up stairs to do a music rehearsal and I started singing, ‘I hate stairs! I can’t abide them even now and then.’ It’s just little funny jokes [like this] and we just all start busting out laughing.”
According to Thomas Russell, Div. 473, who played the character of Bill, at times there could be drama among the cast. Someone might say something sarcastic that gets blown out of proportion or offends other cast members. However, once it is time to get on stage, the drama is left behind and forgotten.
Despite the drama, the cast is usually very affectionate toward each other. New performers that just came into theater this year said the cast would embrace each other with hugs and kisses, which was a strange thing for them at first.
Ariana Sojos, Div. 556, sings as part of the chorus and initially had a difficult time socializing with people. As she rehearsed with the cast everyday, however, she began talking to more people.
On Jan. 31, Autumn Eggers, Div. 590, who played the character of Bianca, lost her cell phone walking out of Saturday rehearsal. She walked into McDonald’s and saw other cast members. She began to cry and was immediately embraced by Borges.
After Eggers explained that she had lost her phone and had to go straight home, the rest of the cast walked back toward the school in search of the phone.
The group spent about two hours kicking through the snow searching. Miriam Hyman, Div. 764, brought a shovel from home to aid in the search. Borges got down on his knees and pushed through the snow with a binder he brought to rehearsal.
Eggers later found a way to contact her friends thank them for their help even though they did not find the missing phone.
Borges ended the search with a group huddle and speech, saying, “We are all family here, and if you ever need anything like this just come up to anyone of us and we’ll do it because we love you and family sticks together.”
