RAL Comes Alive: Princess and the Pea Adaptation a Huge Success

By Tyler McIntosh

Have you ever set up for a play before? Well, apparently it’s not easy work.

The first play of the year for the Dana Brown Mainstage Theatre was “Once Upon a Mattress,” a comical adaptation of the classic “The Princess and the Pea.”

The play delivered drama and nonstop laughs with great singing, funny jokes, and clever lyrics.

There were multiple references to classic fairy tales in the play, including a song about Cinderella and Snow White and a Monty Python reference.

But again, setting up for a play of that magnitude is no walk in the park.

“The actors had to have three hour rehearsals Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday,” said Wayne Ogle 10, “and the techs did everything with the set: painted it, set it up, and even built it themselves.”

When the final call for actors was made, there were around 40 actors and actresses.

The main character were Jarrett Gosch 12 playing the king, Jayleen Jones 12 as the queen, Brent Mackenzie 10 as the prince, and Rachel Brown 12 playing the princess.

Also there was Chris London 12 as the jester, and Trevor Scott 12 and Aubrey Johnson 10 share a role as Sir Harry. Tug Harris 11 plays the minstrel.

The dress rehearsal opened with a huge success Nov 12, with over two hundred people showing up to see the very first play.

With the play being an adaptation, the theatre had to buy the rights for the play, and obviously it was money well spent.

One of the main comical points of the story is that the king (Gosch), is mute, and must pantomime everything he is trying to say.

This really becomes funny when he has to give his son (Mackenzie) “the talk.”

There were many songs in the play, and many actors had solos, including Brown, Jones, and London.

In the end, only time will tell if the play will be a big hit in the Longview community.