When the dynamic Portage High School theatrical duo of Rachel Stewart and Claire Tokash comes out for Saturday night’s curtain call following the final showing of the PHS Spring Musical, “Legally Blonde,” the two will be soaking up the final moments of their PHS Theatre careers.
“It’s going to be scary and sad, yet awesome, because it’s a really fun show,” Tokash said. “We’re not going to do really sad senior speeches right before the show, because last year everyone cried.”
The musical opened up last weekend with three showings in the PHS East Auditorium. Stewart serves the lead role of Elle Woods, while sophomores Enrique Huizar (Warner) and Matt Kiley (Emmett) took on the duties of male leads.
Stewart and Tokash (Serena) collaborated to choreograph the show.
“I’m glad Portage does student choreographers,” Stewart said. “Firsthand experience working with big groups of people has really helped and having to come up with things on the spot has been great.”
Among the other students that play significant roles are seniors Tiffany Woloszyn, Mackenzie Barcelli, Emily Evans and Zach Goolsby. The student band is in the pit to provide the musical accompaniment, while a crew led by Student Director Bree Rutz and Student Producer Alyssa Quade helps make the show a possibility.
Sophomore Teagin Powers, who was in charge of aiding Stewart with her 12 costume changes during the show, is one of the many unsung heroes of the production.
“She is behind the set waiving her hand, ready for me to run to her; she is tearing my clothes off and putting them back on,” Stewart said. “She is right there and has never missed her mark, not one time.”
Tokash listed Jordan Kwiatkowski, who runs the curtains for the show, as another crew member deserving of more attention.
According to Tokash, there are 191 key changes throughout the musical that the student band navigates.
Although Stewart and Tokash said there were a few technical issues during the show’s opening weekend, they concurred that it has gotten better each night.
“The audience doesn’t get to see what the week before is like, so they don’t know that the night before, it took us five hours to get through the show, so even though it may have seemed long Friday [April 19], to us it seemed short because we got through it in three hours,” Stewart said.
Although the seniors in the theatre department will be overcome by sadness following their last performance, Stewart said the entire cast and crew will also experience a sense of accomplishment after Saturday night’s show, which beings at 7:30 in the PHS East Auditorium.
“I remember the feeling that we got last year, right after the show was over and Claire just looked at me and we were like, ‘We did this,’” she said. “It’s just the best feeling.”