By Kirsten Sepulvado
In a triumphant battle between monster and royalty, the two discover they may not be as different as they think. Who will emerge victorious in this battle between Princess Alessandra and the evil bog witch? Whose blood will be on the stage?
Captain Shreve’s production of The Witch’s Princess, directed by Heather Hooper and Lari Leber, was a comedy adventure taken on by a young performer Kyli Bryant as she took on the role of Princess Alessandra. Bryant’s portrayal of Alessandra was an astonishing performance by the sophomore in her first leading role. As a freshman, she acted as a zombie with no lines in the school’s portrayal of Night of the Living Dead and in only a year has earned the lead of the school’s fall play.
Princess Alessandra spends the first half of the play going through different knights whose goal is to defeat the bog witch. The witch has a short moment in Act I performed by Breanna Garcia. While the witch had little screen time her character did make an impact, cursing the Queen that she shall never bare a son. While this part of the plot is only the beginning of a story to come it was fun, and comedic, while still giving the audience a serious story.
The knights included the Knight of Feathers performed by Dwayne Boone, dressed with a feather boa, making the entire crowd laugh. The Knight of Blossoms, Dylan Phillips was also playing the role of the Knight of Oranges. These and other knights were prepared to stand up to the witch and defeat her so they could marry the princess. I enjoyed this part of the play getting to see all of them try to fight for her when she did not want them to. The princess was an independent feminist was very confident in herself and believed she did not need a husband. I like that the character Alessandra reflects a character like Merida from Disney’s Brave.
The princess then decides she must build her own army to defeat the witch and break the curse. She goes on the hunt with her best friend Gabriella, played by Teresa Franks, to find the most terrifying and deadliest monsters known to myth and legend. As she comes to find out these monsters are not scary, and are just innocent people who have been misunderstood. The entire process of finding all these monsters was a very funny process but also felt a little slow. This is only because they were going through the same motions with every monster and they had the same story. Possibly a little under an hour of the play was spent locating the monsters and gathering them as a group when I feel it possibly could have been shortened and that time could’ve been used towards something else.
With all of this said, the play was still very good overall. It included incredible acting and was a true comedy and had a very interesting plot twist in the end. It was something never expected that sent a gasp through the entire audience. I think the costume selection, though small was very smart and creative. The usage of props, even something as insignificant as the dummy Princess Alessandra used to fight, was very smartly placed and the blocking was done well. The show did have a set with banners that changed for their kingdom, their voyage, their castle, and the battle without having to change anything else, and it sill made sense in each scenario.
I got the chance to speak with Kyli Bryant about her experiences in theater, life after high school, and her perspective on her character and the performance.
What challenges took place behind the scenes?
“Definitely having to be there every rehearsal, having to be there every day. Then getting home tired, doing school work, and remembering every single thing that went on in the school day and in rehearsal. It was just a lot.”
What is your favorite part of theater?
“My favorite part is definitely the friendships that you make. You make a lot of new friends and you grow tremendous bonds with these people and pretty much everybody has each other’s backs. It is just amazing, and the feeling after a show, the feeling is amazing. The adrenaline rush is amazing. After you do your final bow, everybody cheers, and you just go running down the B103 hallway just trying to run out in the lobby to see your friends and family. That feeling is the best feeling ever.”
What new things has theater taught you?
“Theater has taught me how to have confidence. It’s given me more confidence, to be bolder, be prouder, a lot more confident in myself. It has brought me out of my shell.”
What is one thing you wish you could have changed in the play?
“I wish we could’ve done our blocking a lot faster and more solid because I feel like we were changing blocking all the way up until the opening week. That put a lot more stress on me. Also, people memorizing their lines: people that had maybe three lines didn’t have them memorized and it just put a lot of stress on me. The light and sound cues weren’t set until like a day before we opened and that was stressful because we were trying to learn the new lights and where to stand and where not to stand.”