By MITCHELL PEARL
Fantasy and adventure came to the Otter Valley stage last weekend with the presentation of “The Witch’s Princess,” by Walking Stick Theatre. This was the second annual presentation of a play by the underclass students at Otter Valley, with almost all the roles taken by the Middle School students and ninth graders. The play was directed by Katie St. Raymond, who joined Otter Valley as a social studies teacher last year with a significant background in theatre. By limiting the cast to the younger students, these aspiring actors can take on the harder and more complicated roles that would otherwise be taken up by upperclassmen.
“The Witch’s Princess” is a relatively new, funny adventure story by playwright Don Zolidis. The play starts with a familiar trope: The main character’s mother—the queen—appears to be dead on the first page. The kingdom is cursed, and the princess, played by Calle Gibbs, is led to believe that the only way to lift the curse is to slay the witch who supposedly killed the queen. The king (Audrey Jacobs) offers Princess Alessandra’s hand in marriage to the knight who can slay the evil witch. But the knights who “try out”—the Knight of Feathers (Declan Gallipo), the Knight of Blossoms (Kristie Posner) and the Knight of Hammers (Xander Weiand) are not up for the task. So, the princess, with her best friend Gabriella (Sienna Many) sneak out of the castle to try to kill the witch (Alice Jacobs) themselves.
First, they assemble a team of friends for the adventure, a crack crew of the deadliest monsters in myth and legend. These are mythical creatures based on stories from around the world: “Megoosa,” played by Asta Gamba; Grendel’s Mother (also known as “Barb”), played by Winter Blaisdell, and the Jabberwock, played by Audrey Carrier. As the adventure progresses, the princess discovers the monsters are not what they seem, and neither is the witch, or the curse, or the kingdom. The play’s title, “The Witch’s Princess,” perhaps gives a hint as to how things turn out.
With able direction by Ms. St. Raymond, and technical direction by Otter Valley Theatre’s Director Jefrey Hull, the production also benefitted from the help of some older students as crew and in technical roles, and from the classroom work of Otter Valley’s Theatre Arts and WIN classes. These underclass students rose to the challenge and presented an energetic, twisted, rollicking and wild quest of magic and adventure to appreciative audiences. No witches, or monsters, were hurt in this production, but some knights did literally have their hands and heads handed back to them!
Looking ahead, the upperclass students of Otter Valley’s Walking Stick Theatre will be presenting “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)”—a hilarious romp through the works of Shakespeare—directed by Jeff Hull, on May 30 and 31. For many of the seniors, this will be their last opportunity to perform at Otter Valley.
