THE NEVERENDING STORY: talk backs

By young performer Haley Olig from the Adventure Cast in THE NEVERENDING STORY

It has been nearly seven weeks since we first started putting the show together, but it seems like only two. The relationships I’ve developed with my cast mates make the time fly by, and I can’t think of closing. It is easy to tell that we’ve become more comfortable with the show and are taking more freedoms in our roles...but not too many, Jeff (our director).

Each audience is different, but they all laugh hard at the same parts of the show. Every single school audience responds with a big “Eww!’ to the Gnomic’s kiss. We often get the same question during the talk back (How does Artex disappear off of the stage? Where do we get our costumes? Who made the puppets?) but we also get some that are more out-of-the-box Last week we were asked how we can afford to put on the show. I am impressed and thankful that students are concerned about the survival of the art in our community.

Every time we step onto the stage for the prologue I realize how lucky I am to be part of such a large-scale, wonderful show. I am also realizing how sad I am going to be to close THE NEVERENDING STORY next weekend. Unfortunately, we – the creatures of Fantastica - will have to step aside and clear the stage to make room for those singing pirates. Lucky pirates!!

Photo by Elizabeth Krumnow: The Gnomic puppets by Mark Hare