Planning
Preparations begin around January. Mrs. Smiley, the overseer and head of Prom operations, convenes with the Junior Class officers. Right away they get down to business. Middlestead explains that the first order of business is always the theme; the rest follows shortly after, as time is of the utmost essence. “This is around the time we book Puf,” says Aubrey Middlestead, Junior Class officer. No matter the theme, Prom is never complete without the sweet serenades of DJ Puff, as anyone who attended a school dance in the past three years would know, and he’s a very busy man, so locking him down soon is a smart move.

Tickets
Have you ever wondered why they start and stop selling prom tickets so soon? You’d probably be surprised to know that they actually started ticket sales later than usual this year. It’s simply because they need an accurate headcount to report to Stambaugh — explains Eli Barr, another Junior Class officer — as Stambaugh provides food and other attendance-specific accommodations for the event. I’d never thought of it this way, but once Eli explained it to me, it seemed like such an obvious answer to a question that left so many wondering. But why did they start selling ‘later than usual’ this year? Well, orders from up top. There’s always someone bigger than the program, and Head-Honcho Mrs. Yobe sent out an executive order that no ticket selling shall be initiated until!!!!... we got some more promposals! ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ “She said we needed to give people more time to do promposals,” says Barr, “but nobody really did one anyway.” This realization left me with another question: Is the art of the traditional promposal being lost? Because when I came to think of it... I’d really only seen one or two myself! Fascinating… but that’s a discussion for another time.

Food/Decor
Food and general decorations for the event are dutifully provided by Stambaugh. However, Mrs. Smiley always makes the darling little centerpieces, one of which I actually got to keep because when they were packing up last year, she told me I could take one of the little disco balls that sat in the middle of every table. To this day, I still have and cherish it. After finding out that so little of Prom’s fate is actually in the hands of those who plan it, I was happy to know that at least this one thing was sacred.

Music
Now, onto a very hot-button issue, the thing that truly makes or breaks Prom: the music. “Puff is really well-versed in popular music,” says Barr. However, Middlestead informed me that all student council members make a doc with songs they’d like to be featured on the prom playlist; these are docs that they actually plan to reuse for prom. Now, this is something that I did actually know about, although I was enlightened to discover through my interview with Eli Barr that these docs serve as mere suggestions to Puff. “Puff definitely likes to keep everything close to himself — we tried to send him an exact playlist but that just wasn't his vibe.” Another aspect of Prom just left up to chance, as we are all at the mercy of DJ Puff. He holds the fate of Prom in his record-spinning hands as we are all helpless to watch. All we have is trust.

By the time you read this article, Prom has likely already come and gone. Did this article enlighten you in any way about its happenings? Did it make you feel a little less judgmental towards its facilitators now that you’re privy to all of the factors that go into it? Let me know your thoughts. You’re likely to see me walking around the hallways with headphones in — give me a tap or even a shove to rally my attention. Let’s share a conversation.

Music is a large part of my life, which I feel is something a lot of people should be able to relate to and connect with. Music is such an important emotional outlet for people, especially during their teenage years. Everybody has those couple of albums or songs that they’re just so connected with. For example, a couple of mine would be Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers or Midnights by Taylor Swift. Listening to music is such an emotional experience. However, it comes to a pinnacle when the listener starts feeling as though they’re connected on a personal level with the artist, rather than the song or album.

A parasocial relationship is defined as “involving or relating to a connection between a person and someone they do not know personally,” by the Cambridge Dictionary. This is extremely common in the digital age we live in, where social media users consume content being posted directly by their celebrity idols and treat it as if they’re viewing just another one of their friends’ posts. This creates an emotional tie to a person that you really know nothing about. That post wasn’t really posted by Taylor Swift; that post was emailed by Taylor Swift to a PR team and run through several checks to make sure it was okay for the public to see before she even thought about posting it. There is truly no personal connection to be had between you and a celebrity. Having an emotional and personal connection to their music or work is entirely different.

This parasocial relationship is taken to an entirely new extreme when it affects concerts and concertgoers. The horrible way concert tickets and concerts in general are being treated right now is an entirely different article, but for now, I’m going to focus on people who have created these parasocial relationships to celebrities and treat concerts as events that must be attended at all costs, and believe other people aren’t as deserving or worthy of the tickets if they haven’t heard every single song 100 times. This behavior is ridiculous. If someone wants to go see an artist they have never heard of before because they heard 10 seconds of one of their songs on TikTok, they are allowed to do that. Would it suck if that person got tickets over someone who has been a fan for 5 years? Yes, but the anger shouldn't be taken out on that person. The real issue with concert tickets is all of the scalpers and bots on Ticketmaster, not the real people who have a genuine interest in music.

It really does confuse me how somebody could get so attached to someone they don’t really know, but at the same time, I completely understand. Right now, that’s what social media is feeding us, and it would be ignorant to 100% blame the viewer.

This is it. The five minute countdown has begun. The lights have dimmed, and the fog machine switch is clicked on. Backstage, quiet whispers and eyes look around, finding comfort in crew and castmates. The past four months have come and passed in a flash, and we can’t help but ask, “How did we get here?” 

“Behind the Script”
Every theatre program is run a bit differently, and to understand HHS’s, I interviewed our director and Drama Club advisor, Mary Davis. “Me and Amber actually discovered this show (The Addams Family) the same year, 2018, we both went and saw it.” At this time, they weren’t running HHS’s drama program. She continues to discuss how she feels we had the necessary students for the cast. “The timing felt right.” Contrary to schools with a larger population or more theatre funding, Davis runs every aspect of the show with assistance from Amber Lissimore. Together, they are the directors, choreographers, costume, and set builders. This is a lot of responsibility for a small team, and I wanted to know what consumes the most time and thought when putting together shows, considering the limited amount of time we have together. Davis states that her biggest responsibility is undoubtedly the cast. She also mentions that in most circumstances, costuming and props outweigh set design. “At the end of the day, I am a theater kid, so I do always think it comes down to acting first, and singing.”

“Rehearsal Realities”
Many members of HHS are aware of the length of rehearsals. Generally, the first month after auditions, practice begins at six-thirty and wraps up at nine. As time goes on, it lengthens to six to nine, and eventually, the last week before the show (referred to as “Tech Week”) lasts a whopping five hours, from five p.m. to ten p.m. It can be intimidating seeing how time-consuming rehearsals can be, especially for student athletes, because sports practices normally last one to two hours. What many don’t realize is how necessary these extensive practices are. Within three to four months, a large cast must learn an entire catalog of music (which is regularly 10+ songs), practice and perfect dances, and memorize cues and lines. Also putting in hard work and long hours is our “crew,” which consists of a painting team, backstage crew, makeup crew, and sound booth, who have to ensure that every technical aspect of the show is perfected by opening night.

“Directing the Dream”
Along with our directors Mary Davis and Amber Lissimore, we have a handful of student directors who help bring the show to life and provide great ideas. These are seniors Peter Koulianos, Caleb Elliot, Taila Odem, Olivia Wallace, and junior Allie Lissimore. When a director can’t make it to rehearsal or is focused on other projects for the show, student directors take initiative and read through scenes with the cast, while giving lines and suggestions. Student directors definitely help improve the show with their input and assistance.

“The Tech Team’s Magic”
Have you ever wondered how scene changes happen so fast, or how a spotlight managed to fall perfectly into place on an actor? Or what’s really going on backstage while the cast is performing a big number? Often, what happens backstage gets ignored or overlooked while watching a performance. Mentioned prior, there are four core teams that work in unison to make a production run smoothly. Firstly, a set painting team is called in when rehearsals first begin. They’re putting in work and providing their talent and creativity designing set pieces that bring the stage to life. Soon after, backstage crew is called in to move these set pieces on and off stage. Sounds simple, right? Not so much. Our senior stage manager, Emma Harley, spends days planning out and creating spreadsheets, mapping out layouts scene by scene. She overlooks every movement and change, directs other crew members, and assigns them roles throughout the show. Every backstage crew member is vital in making sure that every scene is displayed properly. A couple of weeks before the show, a makeup team is called in to begin creating looks for the cast. Makeup varies by production, but for The Addams Family, heavy, corpse-like makeup takes a lot of adjusting and practice. Lastly, the sound booth is called to rehearsals. Being a part of the sound booth is no easy task. They overlook the entire show from the back of the auditorium. Along with turning on and adjusting mic volume, they have to play sound effects, backing tracks, and work every aspect of lighting in a show. Booth members must have an extensive understanding of the script and show to know the perfect timing and cues to make sound and lighting changes. They also must have substantial knowledge to be able to control and adjust the light and sound boards. Senior Scout Nicholson has been running the booth for years and always takes care to train underclassmen to perfection.

“Curtain Call”
By show week, all of the pieces have (hopefully) fallen into place. Months of hard work have paid off, and nerves are higher than ever before. Shows fly by in a flash, and nightly celebrations are well-deserved. By closing night, emotions are mixed. All of the hard work and hours put into the show, the friends we’ve made along the way, and the bonds created are some that can’t be broken. Now, all we have to look back upon are the pictures and memories, for years to come.